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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Ronald Reagan Dies

Aired June 05, 2004 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again, everyone. We mourn tonight as a country officially and personally the death of Ronald Reagan, but our national sadness, which is perfectly right ought to be tempered but why we also know is true.
Mr. Reagan for most of his 93 years a wonderful, full and rich life. A child of small town America, who went West as the country went West, who lived in the dream world of Hollywood and then found a second calling.

He was not a perfect man, not a perfect president, no one is. But in his presidency, he often found the per pitch for where the country was and wanted to go.

And in the end, to the strength of his wife, he helped us all better understand the illness that took him away long before infection took his life today. That too was about courage. Courage of a different sort, for which tonight we can also be quite grateful.

We begin with the whip. And the whip begins in Bel Air, California, Frank Buckley, outside the Reagan home. Since early today, Frank, the headline from there tonight?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, family members were by his side as the 40th president of the United States died at home here in Bel Air. Now his flag draped casket is on its way to several days of national mourning -- Aaron?

BROWN: Frank, thank you. On to Capitol Hill, CNN's Joe Johns. Ronald Reagan being remembered by members of Congress tonight. So Joe, a headline from there?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, reactions to the passing of President Reagan are coming in from both Democrats and Republicans. They all remember him fondly. Meanwhile, plans for this funeral have been in the works for years, but it will still be quite an undertaking for the city of Washington, D.C.

BROWN: Joe, thank you. Jeff Greenfield's in Charleston, South Carolina tonight. Jeff, a headline from you?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, Ronald Reagan cast a huge shadow over the presidency for eight years. He continues to do that for -- to this day. But in the years after he left the White House, he shunned the limelight. And ultimately, as we all know, Alzheimer's caught up with him and took him on a 10 year journey far from the center that he had occupied for so long, Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, get back to you as well. And finally, Moscow where the former president made a major mark. CNN's Jill Dougherty is there. Jill, a headline from Moscow tonight?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Russia, Aaron, Ronald Reagan will always be remembered as the symbol of the Cold War, the man who invented the phrase "the evil empire."

BROWN: Jill, thank you very much.

We have lots to do in the couple of hours. We hope you stay with us on this Saturday night. It all begins in Bel Air, California, outside the Reagan family home. It was appropriate that the family went back to California. It is where Mr. Reagan seemed to feel most comfortable, out West, out there.

Ronald Reagan died as we just heard with much of his family at his side. CNN's Frank Buckley joins us again -- Frank?

BUCKLEY: Aaron, we're told that Nancy Reagan was by his side, as was Patty and Ron, Jr. Michael came later in the afternoon, after spending Friday with the former president.

At about 5:15 local time, about four hours after the president died, his flag draped casket was removed from the estate in a hearse and went by motorcade. Several LAPD motorcycle officers escorting the hearse, along with Secret Service agents, also part of the motorcade, as it went to Santa Monica to a mortuary there.

After that, the body is expected to go to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. That will begin the process several days long process in which the military district of Washington, which has the official responsibility of handling the affairs over the next several days, will take charge. That is considered day one, where the -- there will be a repose here in California.

Day two, the casket containing the former president will be transported to Washington, D.C. and repose at the National Cathedral overnight.

Day three, the casket will travel by hearse to 16th and Constitution, where a horse drawn carriage will provide the main funeral procession to the capitol, where government leaders are expected to accept the former president. There should be remarks there.

The public isn't expected to be invited to that portion, but the president is expected to lie in state for 17 to 24 hours. At that point to day four, the casket containing the body is moved to another location to the National Cathedral for the funeral.

And then on day five, the casket is returned to California for a funeral service and burial here in California -- Aaron?

BROWN: And am I right that while we know, sort of the order of things, we really don't know when the clock starts, when day one is, do we?

BUCKLEY: That's right, Aaron. It really depends on a couple things. But primarily, it depends on when the family is prepared for the clock to begin. At the end of the day, Nancy Reagan and other family members will say here's what we do want, here's what we don't want, and here's when we want this process to begin.

BROWN: OK. But it obviously is going to play out over the next week in front of a world audience.

Just Frank, a couple quick things if I might, the first inklings we got that the former president had taken a bad turn was yesterday. Had there been chatter out there even before yesterday that his death was imminent?

BUCKLEY: Well, there, as you probably know, Aaron, there's been chatter repeatedly over the past several years, at various times. And that seemed to increase in a more serious way over the weekend.

There were some who told us that during this past week, that there had been a turn for the worst, not necessarily today, but during the week that something had taken place. And we had, as others had, prepared in some way for this event to occur, but tried to be as sensitive as possible to the family and what was happening without reporting it until we knew something concrete.

And as you know today, we began reporting what sources familiar with the situation ultimately said, which was that there had been a turn for the worse.

BROWN: Just in that regard, the family or spokespeople for the family had always been quick to shoot down rumors that the former president's death was imminent. And when they didn't shoot these down, it became pretty clear that things were turning as they finally did.

Frank, it's been a long day for you. Thank you. Frank Buckley in Bel Air, California, part of -- up there by Beverly Hills, California, where the president lived after he left office.

President Bush was in Paris when he learned of President Reagan's death earlier today. Tomorrow, of course, Mr. Bush will mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy.

He released a statement shortly after speaking to former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Our senior White House correspondent John King is traveling with the president. And John joins us in the early morning from Paris. John, good evening.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Aaron. Good morning from Paris.

Mr. Bush, in fact, had just turned in here in Paris, 10:00 Saturday night Paris time, when his chief of staff came knocking at the door. Mr. Bush perhaps knew what was -- what he was about to hear from the other side, because earlier in the day, he had been warned Mr. Reagan's health was deteriorating. And in fact, chief of staff Andy Card told the president again just after 10:00 at night here in Paris that the 40th president of the United States had indeed passed away at his home in California.

Mr. Bush immediately ordered flags at the White House and all federal government buildings flown at half staff for the next 30 days, instructed his staff to get about the business of planning those memorial services and the state funeral you just spoke of with Frank Buckley.

He placed a five minute call to Nancy Reagan. Both the president and First Lady Laura Bush voicing their condolences and their sadness in that phone conversation. Then Mr. Bush did come out to make a public statement, telling reporters that this was "a sad hour in the life of America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom.

He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self doubt. And because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny.

Now in laying our leader to rest, we say thank you. He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him. May God bless Ronald Reagan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is a president who often models himself on Ronald Reagan. On the world stage and like on this trip to Europe, he talked optimistically about American values and freedom. He also is, like Ronald Reagan, was a bit unpopular in Europe at this moment in time.

At home, of course, Mr. Bush came to office and pushed a giant tax cut, much like Ronald Reagan did. This is the son, of course, of a president named Bush, but he politically is much more, you might say, a descendant of Ronald Reagan.

And as this president marked with sadness the death of Ronald Reagan here in Paris, France, his father, again who was Ronald Reagan's vice president for eight years before becoming president of the United States in his right, offered his tribute from the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People ask me, "Well what was so special about President Reagan?" And on a personal basis, it was his kindness, his decency, his sense of humor. Unbelievable.

And he had a wonderful way where you could disagree with him. He'd have leaders in Congress or foreign leaders that he'd disagree with. And yet, he was never disagreeable about it himself. He was never mean spirited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: President Bush will awake here in Paris in just a few hours. He will stick to his schedule, attending the 60th anniversary commemoration of the allied landing, the D-Day landing, at Normandy. We are told he will offer more words of tribute to President Reagan in his address there in the morning.

Then it is back to the United States. Aaron, as of now, the White House tells us Mr. Bush is sticking to his schedule, the planned group of A summit in Sea Island, Georgia. But as the Reagan family sends word at exactly how and when they would like the funeral and the memorial service time table to unfold, we are told the president's schedule could change in the days ahead -- Aaron?

BROWN: Wow. And just the -- that summit puts a lot of the people who would be coming to the country for the funeral anyway in the country. And that -- so they'll obviously be some coordination there.

George W. Bush is almost, not quite, 40 years younger, than Ronald Reagan. Did they have a relationship? Did they know each other really?

KING: They knew each other, but they knew each other in a very different way. They did not know each other as members of the president's club. Mr. Reagan, of course, had Alzheimer's Disease by the time Mr. Bush came to office.

George Bush was frequently in the White House during his father's administration, including when his father was the vice president of the United States. So he did come to know Mr. Reagan. But he came to know him as an elder to a youngster, if you will. George W. Bush in his 20s and 30s in those days, his 40s even when his father was president. But they did not have a relationship as peers, but we are told that this president always admired Ronald Reagan.

At times there was talk of some friction that George Bush, then his vice president, was not given enough responsibility, had some hard feelings toward the Reagans. The Bush family disputes that vehemently. And you see as this president campaigns, not only he himself, but most of his political advisers, when they look for a model, they don't, as much as they respect George H. Walker Bush, they look at Ronald Reagan, not this president's father -- Aaron?

BROWN: As does the entire party pretty much these days. John, thank you. We've got a long day ahead. We appreciate you staying up with us tonight. John King, our senior White House correspondent.

Ronald Reagan didn't, in fact, touch off the revolution that bore his name. That really belongs to the late Senate Barry Goldwater of Arizona. But Senator Goldwater didn't win the White House and didn't have the coattails. And President did in Congress. And in some respects, the country, too is a different place because of it.

So the reaction tonight from Capitol Hill. And we go back to CNN's Joe Johns. Joe, good evening again.

JOHNS: Good evening, Aaron. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas called Ronald Reagan "the father of the modern Republican conservative movement," which is saying a lot. There are many Republicans on Capitol Hill who call themselves Reagan Republicans, who feel they owe their careers to the model that Ronald Reagan laid down.

So a number of comments, of course, from both sides of the aisle, starting with the Speaker of the House, who said in a statement today that "Ronald Reagan outlined a vision that captured the imagination of the free world, a vision that toppled the Communist empire, and freed countless millions."

We have many other statements, of course. Notably from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who said, "Above all, Ronald Reagan was a true patriot who's endless optimism inspired America's continued ascent to greatness. Undoubtedly, Ronald Reagan has left an indelible mark on our country and our global community."

And from the other side of the aisle, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said, "America has lost an icon. Ronald Reagan's leadership will inspire Americans for generations to come. His patriotism and devotion to our country will never be forgotten."

Of course, there were so many Democrats who fought against the Reagan revolution. Among them, Senator Ted Kennedy, the Democrat. He also issued a kind statement today, saying, "We often disagreed on issues of the day, but I had immense respect and admiration for his leadership and his extraordinary ability to inspire the nation to live up to its high ideals. The warmth of his personality always shone through. And his infectious optimism gave us all the feeling it was really was morning in America.

Just a few of the statements from members of Congress tonight on the passing of President Ronald Reagan.

As Frank Buckley has already alluded to, there are plans, of course, for a funeral, the type of funeral really not seen in this city since around 1973, when the funeral was held of President Lyndon Johnson. It will be a huge affair, of course. Security will have to be very tight. A number of things planned, as Frank indicated. Among them, a ceremony here at the Capitol. The president's casket lies in state. Thousands of people are expected to file past the casket. There is also anticipated some type of ceremony at the National Cathedral here in Washington, D.C. The date has not yet been set.

One thing I can tell you, the plans have been in the works for years. The camera positions, the lighting angles, where the media will be, where the people will file through. There are some challenges, however, here on Capitol Hill tonight, particularly the fact that there's a huge construction project going on, an underground visitor's center, which is being built and scheduled to be opened in early 2005. Of course, a number of people have been trying to figure out how to get people -- the public in and out of the Capitol for that. And presumably, it's all been worked out.

We'll see as these days go on. Back to you, Aaron.

BROWN: Just -- are you picking up anything, just going back to what Frank and I were talking about, about when the clock starts running here, when you expect the former president's body to arrive in Washington?

JOHNS: We've really been trying to gain that out. And it's very difficult, Frank, because as you know, we have the G-8 Summit going on. And the first question is whether the G-8 is going to change its time table in any way for the president to come here, because it's assumed, of course, that he's going to be involved in any ceremonies here at the Capitol. Really you have to figure what's going to happen with the G-8 and then determine when the funeral will be held, Aaron.

BROWN: It's a very delicate choreography that's going on. It's not -- there's no question here. It's an observation, I guess. We don't as a country do many of these big, almost royal sorts of events that state funerals can be like. We have very few in our lifetime in fact, but this is one of the things we do and the way we honor former presidents. And over the next week, I suspect, it'll play out over the next week. We'll watch it yet again for some of us for the fourth time in our lives.

Joe, thank you for your work tonight. Joe Johns on the Hill.

Frank Sesno covered Ronald Reagan and the White House. He was our bureau chief for a long time. He produced two hour documentary. "Ronald Reagan, a Legacy Remembered" for the History Channel. So he's kept reasonable busy.

It's always good to see him. What do we -- what don't we know in a sense? I mean, what are the great misconceptions about Ronald Reagan?

FRANK SESNO, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think one of the most compelling misconceptions that was widely spread by the media, frankly, which I was a part. We saw it coming out of the White House every day during the Reagan presidency, was that he was not sharp, that it was a scripted presidency, and he was a three by five index card actor in the whole thing.

In fact, there was a news magazine that put on the cover during his presidency, "The 9:00 to 5:00 President," that he wasn't actively engaged.

The fact is, and we've gotten a greater appreciation of this actually since he's left the White House, was that he was deeply engaged. And if it was a scripted presidency, he was writing a lot of the script.

I have here, Aaron, I brought in some of the things that I got from the Reagan Library when I was researching this documentary. This, and I'm going to turn this to the camera, and maybe you can get a picture of this. Doesn't look great because of the light, but it's a handwritten document. And there are hundreds of these that Ronald Reagan wrote before, and during, and even after he was in the White House.

This particular one is a long document, was a speech that he gave in opposition to the strategic arms limitation treaty, SALT II. It was during the Carter years. And in this document, Aaron, he argued for not just arms limitations, but arms reductions. One of the things that's not appreciated fully about the Reagan -- about Ronald Reagan, was that he was actually serious when he talked about reducing nuclear weapons. He was commonly seen as something of a cowboy, a warmonger even in the early days. And that masked -- he argued for strength, absolutely. And building up towards strength. But he really felt strongly about arming down.

BROWN: Let me try getting another question or two before the clock gets us here. Was there a noticeable difference in the president in the first term and the president in the second term?

SESNO: Well, yes, in the second term once the Iran-Contra scandal hit. The dealing with arms for hostages with the Iranians and then the transfer of funds to the Nicaraguan Contras, the anti- Communist Contras, that was revealed in 1986.

Ronald Reagan went into a deep depression over that. And it was a depression that has been talked about by a number of people who are close to him, driven principally by the fact that he somehow lost his connection with the American public. That hurt him deeply.

And he said -- he commented to several of his aides, why don't they trust me? Why don't they believe me about this? Because he felt that they were not negotiating for -- with terrorists, when in fact, they actually were trading arms for hostages. That was the toughest part for him.

BROWN: I hope over the course of the week, honestly, that we'll have a series of these conversations. I -- we've got lots of questions I want to pick your brain with. So come back over the course of the week, and we'll chat some -- OK?

SESNO: We'll do that, OK.

BROWN: Thank you. Our former colleague, Frank Sesno, who keeps himself very busy in Washington these days.

With a few exceptions, Ronald Reagan's return to private life was absolute, even allowing for his illness, friends say it was unlikely he would led the extroverted ex-presidency of a Harry Truman or even a Dwight Eisenhower, neither of whom were especially young when they left office.

Two careers in the public eye, it seemed, were quite enough. Here's our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ronald Reagan left office in 1989 on a series of high notes. He was more popular than when he began his term. The Cold War was apparently winding down, after more than 40 years of tensions. And with the election of George Herbert Walker Bush, the first sitting vice president to win a presidential election in more than 150 years, Reagan had in effect won his third term.

But he's also 78, the oldest president ever to leave office. Had survived an assassination attempt and cancer. So an activist ex- presidency just wasn't in the cards. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon.

LOU CANNON, REAGAN BIOGRAPHER: I don't know that Ronald Reagan ever really expected to be an ex-president. I don't know that that had crossed his mind.

GREENFIELD: Reagan wrote a book of memories. Critics called them remarkably unrevealing. And they attracted little attention. He traveled to Japan in 1989 for a series of speeches for which he was paid some $2 million.

CANNON: The trip to Japan was a mistake, I believe. And I think Reagan himself realized that. He was criticized for it. And I think the criticisms got to him. And he never repeated it.

GREENFIELD: He spent much of his time relaxing at his ranch near Santa Barbara, planning for his library and studiously avoiding any second guessing of his successor.

CANNON: He had chosen Bush as his vice president. He believed that he'd made the right choice. And sometimes some of his conservative friends would try, I think, to get him to just to dig Bush a little bit, you know, like he wasn't quite as good as you were. He never did that.

GREENFIELD: Reagan's last memorable public appearance was at the Republican convention in 1992.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This fellow they have nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well, let me tell you something, I knew Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: When he poked good natured fun at Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton and at himself.

REAGAN: He was a friend of mine. And governor, you're no Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: And he also sounded familiar notes of optimism, hopefulness.

REAGAN: May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural God given optimism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The real spirit of Ronald Reagan was this generous, generous combatant, which is one of the reasons people loved him so much.

GREENFIELD: Barely two years later, on November 5th, 1994, Reagan released an open letter to America, revealing that he had developed Alzheimer's Disease. He spent the last years of his life increasingly shut out from the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: And Aaron, what's really interesting about this is that Ronald Reagan was such a larger than life figure in his presidency. And now is such a larger than life figure as he enters history, probably the single most admired person within the Republican party possibly with the exception of Abe Lincoln, that those years after the presidency are going to stand as a kind of an odd footnote to his life and his career.

Possibly because of his age, possibly because it took time to understand just how critical a role Reagan played in redefining the Republican party and American conservatism -- Aaron?

BROWN: When you -- just when you heard the news today, and I assume that you'd been getting the same kind of reports that we had over the last day or so that was likely to happen soon, just what jumped into your mind? A specific day, a specific moment, anything?

GREENFIELD: It was the way in which Ronald Reagan grew in political terms. We're going to spend decades analyzing how effective a president he was, whether he had the right policies, what he did wrong.

But for a guy who began his real political life advocating on behalf of Barry Goldwater, at the high water mark of post war American liberalism, where the conservatives suffered one of the worst political defeats in their history, and then to move on, 16 years later to a landslide rejection of the Democratic president, a redefinition of the Republican party, and a redefinition of American politics to the point where a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was to declare some years later the era of big government is over, I -- it just struck me that, you know, we always talk about that there are no giants anymore. Well, whether you liked him or didn't like him, in pure political terms, in pure consequential terms, this was a giant.

BROWN: He was that. Jeff, thank you very much. Jeff's in South Carolina tonight.

We all talk about the era of big government being over. Government's plenty big. It's not shrinking at all, but it's just part of the way we see the politics of the time.

Ronald Reagan served as president for eight years. Most of that time, Candy Crowley was there in Washington, writing about it. A great deal of history was made. And today, of all days, it is of course time to look back.

Candy, good evening to you. It's nice to see you.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

We were -- I guess, you know, it's interesting to your question to Jeff, Aaron, talking about when you heard today, what did you think? And I think once we got beyond thinking for the family, as sad as this is, we had heard Nancy Reagan a couple of weeks ago say that he had reached a point where he had -- was beyond her reach. And so there must be some sense of relief there.

And then after that, what's interesting to me is that what Reagan said in his speech in 1992 at the convention that Jeff just referred to in that piece, was that I hoped that people will remember me as the person that appealed to your best hopes and not your worst fears.

He really wanted to be remembered as the guy with the smile and the optimist and the man who saw better days ahead every day he lived. And it's interesting to me that that's what we're hearing today from so many people at this -- after that four years of malaise and the Iranian hostage situation, that this big optimistic, and by that time Californian swept into Washington and sort of changed things in a way that only now we're just beginning to see.

BROWN: There were -- we will talk, I assume, over the next -- well, we'll talk ourselves crazy over the next week or so about a lot of this. But one of the things about the Reagan humor that I liked, because I liked this in people I guess, is that he could make jokes about himself. He could laugh at himself.

There was a wonderful moment in the Mondale debate, as I recall it, that he had not done well. The president had not done well in the first debate. It was generally thought that age had become an issue. And he turned to the camera. And no one played to a camera any better. And he basically as I'll mangle the line, but it was basically I won't make an issue of my opponent's inexperience, if he doesn't make an issue of my age.

CROWLEY: And the clip of that is great, because you see Walter Mondale just howling.

BROWN: Yes.

CROWLEY: You know, in the back. I mean, he even got him. I mean, he was good with the one liners. He really was.

BROWN: Did he like reporters?

CROWLEY: You know, he liked people. I don't if he sort of differentiated. And I never felt any -- certainly there are a lot of candidates I've covered that have felt -- you could kind of feel the hostility, at least for what you did as opposed to who you are.

But you know, we would have times -- there was a period after which -- during which they would call up and say hey, the president would like a group of you to come up and maybe have a cocktail and talk. And you'd sit around this group in one of the rooms in the White House.

What sort of always interested me was that he was really a gentleman's gentleman. He found it very hard, when we were all yelling at him to try to get him to answer a question, he found it very hard to turn away from a female reporter. It was -- not a new phenomenon, but a relatively new phenomenon. He was old school.

BROWN: Yes.

CROWLEY: And it was very -- he was so polite, he could turn away from the guys, but he had a very hard time not answering a woman's question.

And when we were in those private things, he always made sure, and it wasn't -- it was in a much more of an old school role. You know, he'd pat your hand. He was very tactile. And when he shook hands with you, he'd put one on the other. He was a very friendly person in an old school kind of way.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thank you. That's yet another advantage that you women have, as best I can tell. Thank you.

CROWLEY: Yes, well, we're still not even.

BROWN: Well, that may be so. One of us is still working late at night. Thank you, Candy. Candy Crowley.

We'll take a break here. We have much more ahead. We'll take a look at the view from overseas. Jill Dougherty's in Moscow. We'll check there. This will be a fascinating day, I think, and much more. We'll take a break as we remember Ronald Reagan from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Ronald Reagan may have worn the label "conservative," but in foreign policy, he was in many ways quite radical. Until he tried, presidents simply didn't tell their Soviet counterparts to tear down walls or talk about zero option for nuclear weapons.

It was a dance with its own strange etiquette. And Ronald Reagan simply wasn't having any of it, which made foreign policy in the Reagan years something to cover indeed.

CNN's Jill Dougherty and Robin Oakley did that. They've got stories to tell for it. And we're pleased to have them with us tonight. Jill in Russia and Robin in London.

Jill, let me start with you. Obviously, what Ronald Reagan put in motion and Mikhail Gorbachev put in motion, too, changed forever Russian life, Soviet life. How do you think this -- his passing will be seen there?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think, Aaron, you'd have to say number one, he was really the symbol of the Cold War. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE) defining rhetoric of the Cold War. Even here in Russia, people know the phrases, "the evil empire, "Star Wars."

And you have to go back to his famous speech at the Berlin Wall, where he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." So these things are very tied with the concept that people here have with their country.

Now if you were to look at it, on the one hand, the people who want here -- who wanted the Soviet Union to end, who did indeed think that it was an evil empire, they would remember Ronald Reagan very fondly for having played a major, major role in the end of the Soviet Union.

Others, who rued the end of the Soviet Union, might not be as kind. And then also, Aaron, you have to say that debate over the question of whether President Reagan's increase in the military budget and that arms race really did lead to the end of the Soviet Union. There are new theories coming out on that right now.

BROWN: I think it is always a little dangerous, and probably simplistic to say any one thing or any one person was responsible for in this case the end of the Cold War. It was a complicated set of facts. I just wonder if by and large, not people in the extremes, but people in the middle in Russia, don't want to take some credit on their own for the change, don't want to acknowledge the role of Gorbachev and what he did and later even Yeltsin, when it looked like things might really go south?

DOUGHERTY: Right. There are the people who would argue that let's say human rights people who would argue that they pushed and pushed and pushed, and that had an effect.

There's also the theory, which is quite interesting, about oil prices. You know, Russia is a huge -- always has been, a very, very big oil producer. And at that point, oil prices were crashing. And that had an effect.

But overall, people here, if you look at it economically, would have to say that the Soviet Union's economy was so impractical and could never sustain itself. And that ultimately, it just collapsed of its own weight.

But I think you'd have to say that many people here would agree that that arms race and the fight between the United States and the Soviet Union at that point, outspending the Soviet Union, was one of the key elements in pushing it over the edge.

BROWN: Let's go to Robin. Robin, in many ways, and not unlike George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan scared the Europeans to death.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he certainly did initially, Aaron. There was this image of him as a cowboy. I think the Europeans found it hard initially to take seriously somebody who'd spent part of his career as a Hollywood actor. That's not a common background for European politicians.

They saw him initially perhaps as something of a warmonger. They were disturbed by some of the strength of his Cold War rhetoric. But I think partly due to the chemistry that he developed with Margaret Thatcher, they gradually came to take him as a much more sophisticated politician.

She, after all, was the one who persuaded him that they could both do business with Mikhail Gorbachev, as she put it. And indeed, he began to do business with Mikhail Gorbachev to such an extent that she actually became alarmed when the two of them met in Reykiovic (ph). And she felt that President Reagan was, as it were, handing over the whole of the Western arms arsenal. And she had to dash off to Washington soon after that and reprimand Ronald Reagan for overdoing it, as she saw it.

And I think Europe gradually adjusted to him over a period. And European politicians were not impervious to the sheer charm of Ronald Reagan. He was, many of them found, a nice guy to meet.

BROWN: Well, yes. So sort of interpersonal relationships. Man now in between presidents who are successful have to have them, whether it's in domestic policy or international affairs.

Will it be an enormous story in London? Or will it just be front page coming up, and pretty much move on?

OAKLEY: It will be a big story for at least a day, I think, Aaron. Partly because, again, of that -- the memories that people have of the personal chemistry with Margaret Thatcher.

We have Thatcherism. You had Reaganomics. And the two of them were two politicians who saw the world in black and white, not in the intervening shades of gray. When she first met him as governor of California in -- back in '75, I think it was, she said she felt instinctively then that here was somebody who felt and thought as she did.

And they built on this together. And they shared all these instincts about less government, about lower taxes, about effective military spending and so on.

And this did build into probably one of the most effective and enduring political alliances of world leaders through the 1980s. But it was personal as well.

And Margaret Thatcher, when we saw her getting a little bit down back at home, she dashed across to the United States to see President Reagan and get a kind of recharging of her ideological batteries.

BROWN: Robin, good to see you. Jill, thank you in Russia, Jill Dougherty over there. Robin Oakley in London. Appreciate your work tonight. Thank you very much.

We'll take a break here. We have much more ahead. A two hour special edition of NEWSNIGHT on a Saturday night, as we honor former President Ronald Reagan, who died today in Southern California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Ronald Reagan was for years a card carrying Democrat. After switching parties, he went on to give the country a new conservative view of itself.

He enjoyed, enjoyed and enjoyed extraordinary popularity among Republicans and a fair number of Democrats, who became Reagan Republicans. Some many still are.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Santa Monica, California, where earlier today, hundreds of people gathered outside the funeral home where Mr. Reagan's body was taken.

Ted, good evening to you.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. And there are still dozens of people outside of this funeral home, milling around, watching really nothing, just looking at the funeral home. There's a small memorial that has started here with flags and flowers. And it's difficult to see, but in the back of it, and very poignantly, is a cowboy hat that was placed here earlier this afternoon. People have been coming here to pay their respects.

You mentioned the party affiliations. We've been talking to people who say they are both Republican and Democrat. All of them felt the need to come out here and pay their respects on this day, this history making day.

According to the Reagan aides, and there are a number of them still here at the funeral home, they've been here throughout the day, they say they'll make an announcement tomorrow at noon here in Santa Monica as to the particular schedule of events.

Of course, they have been pretty much laid out in terms of what will happen to the remains. Of course, first to Simi Valley for a day and then on to Washington, D.C., where the funeral will take place. And the former president's remains will lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

But that specific schedule should be laid out tomorrow morning and announced at noon here at Santa Monica. Of course, the family will have the final say as to when that clock, if you will, starts ticking and all of these things happen. Until the -- through the weekend, it is expected that the president's remains will remain here and be prepared in Santa Monica.

Tonight, though, a lot of people just coming out, people that happen to live in this neighborhood, to pay their respects to the former president -- Aaron?

BROWN: Just very, very quickly, OK, when people come by, are they in tears or because in some respects, obviously a man passed that's sad, or are they just there to pay respects?

ROWLANDS: I think it's -- they're here to respects. And you know, the people are thinking back, taking away the last 10 years, when of course, he publicly fought Alzheimer's. People are remembering Ronald Reagan. Everybody formulates a relationship, if you will, with their president. And depending on the age of the individual, people are reflecting and they're talking about it amongst themselves and to members of the media.

BROWN: Ted, thanks a lot. Ted Rowlands in Santa Monica tonight, getting a little more detail on the sequence of events.

And the key to me, in all of this, is sometime tomorrow afternoon, about 3:00 Eastern time, if not before, if it leaks out, we'll have a pretty fair idea of when the official funeral series of events will begin in -- first in California, then in Washington. And ultimately, back in California, where Mr. Reagan will be buried.

Frank Donatelli has been good enough to stay up late with us. He's in Washington. He worked for both Ronald Reagan campaigns, the Reagan White House, and from '87 through '89, he's now the chairman of the Reagan Ranch board of directors. So he goes way back with the former president.

It's nice to see you.

FRANK DONATELLI, FMR. POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR RONALD REAGAN: Thank you.

BROWN: At the risk at seeming indelicate, I hope this isn't, is a day like this in some way a day of mixed feelings? Is there some sense of relief for his family that this very difficult period has finally ended?

DONATELLI: Yes, absolutely. There isn't any question about that. There's tremendous sadness on the one hand, because we feel like we've all lost a great leader. On the other hand, the last several years could not have been easy for his family. So this is a blessing, I think, for the president and for his family.

BROWN: I'm not sure there's -- honestly, Frank, there's a question in this, but let me just throw out an idea and see what you have to say. One of the things that I will always admire about the Reagans, and in particular Nancy Reagan, is the public way that she addressed this terrible illness, an illness that many families didn't want to talk about, wanted -- were ashamed that it existed in their family, and how she changed our consciousness about it, and through him as well.

DONATELLI: Well, I think that's a very good observation. I think one of the reasons that President Reagan decided to go public with his illness was that he wanted to tell people, and families that were in this same circumstance, that by being strong and by being courageous, you can get through it. And if that's the message that he meant to convey 10 years ago when he first told us about this, I think he was very, very successful.

BROWN: If there was one thing about him, one moment with him to share with viewers tonight, what would it be?

DONATELLI: Oh, my, there would be so many things. Well, I'll just pick something I guess at the end of his administration. When in the last year of his presidency, I would fly with him from the White House on Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base on the helicopter. And I would notice that inevitably, he would be looking down at some of the homes that we would fly over in Prince George's County, Maryland.

And I said to him once, I said, "Mr. President, what do you see down there?" And he said, "Look at that, look at that, look at those homes. They're beautiful homes and they're owned by working people. I've got show Gorbachev how much freedom works in America and how American working men and women can make a better life for themselves. There's no reason why they can't do that in his country also."

And I'm told that the next several months after that, when Gorbachev did come to the United States, he took him on that same helicopter ride.

BROWN: That is a great story. It's nice to talk to you. Thanks for joining us tonight.

DONATELLI: Thank you.

BROWN: Very, very much. We appreciate it.

George Schultz worked for Ronald Reagan during the presidency. I remember I think -- and in fact I think I know even remember the event. I think George W. Bush was speaking at the Reagan Library. And I believe Mr. Schultz was there. And Mr. Schultz is on the phone with us now.

Good evening to you, sir. Your thoughts tonight? Well, it was a pretty good wind-up, but apparently not a very good pitch. Are we going to get him back or not? OK, we're not.

Tell me where you want to go then and we'll -- OK. Let's take a break. We'll sort out the phone line issues and all the rest. And we'll be right back. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The nation's capitol on this Saturday night in June. Flags flying at half staff. It's been a gray day in Washington, as the nation mourns its 40th president, the passing of Ronald Wilson Reagan. President Reagan died in his California home about 1:00 in the afternoon Pacific coast time.

But the last 10 years, as of course he know, he has battled Alzheimer's Disease. In the end, it was infection, as is often the case that claimed his life. His body will come to Washington some time this week, where the nation will officially mourn his passing.

And then, the former president will go back home to California, his adopted home in California, where he will be laid to rest. Ronald Reagan died today. He was 93.

Robert Dallek is with us tonight. He is a noted historian of presidents. And we're always pleased to talk to him. There were -- well, let me ask it as a question rather than an assertion. It has always seemed to me that there were two Reagan presidencies, the firs term different from the second.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes.

BROWN: Does it seem that way to you?

DALLEK: Yes, I think Aaron, the first term was a case of him learning the ropes, so to speak. But it was very much focused on the domestic side and the tax cuts and dealing with the economy.

And the second term, of course, was much more a foreign policy presidency, when he gave up on the rhetoric about the evil empire and saw an opportunity to deal with Gorbachev, and move the Soviet Union toward the collapse of Communism. And it was a very different second presidency from the first.

BROWN: And then in the end of the second term, some of the shine had gone off, hadn't it?

DALLEK: Yes without question because the Iran-Contra affair sort of blighted his presidency at the end. And it left a certain question mark about his legacy.

But nevertheless, he did end on a very high note in terms of his personal popularity. But you know, historians are going to wrestle with these issues, 15, 20, 30, 40 years down the road. And he will be certainly remembered as a very significant president.

And I think most particularly, the fact that he came to the White House in 1981. The country was in a pretty sour mood about the presidency. You had Nixon's imperial presidency. You had the failure in Vietnam. Watergate. Ford and Carter had not done terribly well.

And so Reagan restored a sense of hope, a sense of kind of uplift about the presidency. Now it's ironic, because he preached the idea that government was not the solution, government was the problem. And yet, when he left the White House, he had kind of rekindled kind of affection for the presidency. And so, it was, I think, pretty nice irony.

BROWN: Well, I don't think he meant that kind of government. I don't think that's what he was thinking about. I think he was thinking about all those programs. Was he adaptable?

DALLEK: Well, he was adaptable. He was very adaptable. You know, as governor of California, he proved himself adaptable, because of example, he said his feet were in concrete on the issue of withholding tax. And then he signed a withholding tax law into law.

But I think in this presidency on Communism, on dealing with the Soviet Union, there you saw great adaptability on his part because it was like two different administrations, the one that started out with the evil empire discussion, and then the second administration, which was really for summit conferences and almost a friendship that developed between him and Gorbachev.

BROWN: Who had his ear? Who did he -- whose advise did he most value?

DALLEK: Well, you know, I think in a way, he was in that sense, his own man. He had a strong sense of purpose. He had strong views about Communism, about the economy, about government. And he really stuck to his ideas in that sense.

So you see, the broad ideas he held to, but to implement them, he was much more practical, much more pragmatic.

BROWN: Let me ask one or two other things. It has always seemed to me that there was, as genial as he was and in some ways as is out there as he could be, he always held something back in his hip pocket about himself.

DALLEK: Yes.

BROWN: He was difficult for biographers and historians in many respects, it seems to me, to capture. Do you agree with that?

DALLEK: I do. And I think this will be one of the puzzles for biographers in the future. You know, Edmund Morris struggled, I think, to come to terms with what the man as a personality, as an individual was about. Because on the one hand, he was very genial, someone who was so likable, and of course described as the great communicator, but he was a very private person. And as you say, was sort of held back from a kind of openness with people.

And I don't know that a lot of his advisers felt as if they had a very close personal relationship with him.

BROWN: That's interesting. Bob, it's very nice to see you. We appreciate...

DALLEK: Good to see you.

BROWN: ...staying up late with us on a Saturday night.

DALLEK: Sure.

BROWN: Thank you. Bob Dallek, the noted historian and presidential biographer, who's works are quite wonderful to read.

We have much more ahead on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT. Bill Schneider joins us to talk about the Reagan impact on politics, especially American conservative politics.

But there's much more, too, to note on a day when America loses one of its former presidents. Break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What Ronald Reagan meant to the country is something for historians to talk about and historians will talk about it. What he meant to his party, the Republican party, and to the conservative movement is something for CNN's Bill Schneider to talk about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The thing to remember about Ronald Reagan is this. He wasn't just the legend to the country. He was also a hero to a political movement.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Reagan is really the icon of the conservative movement. Without him, I think the conservatives would feel -- they've sort of lost their leader. They've lost their heroic figure.

SCHNEIDER: Reagan rallied conservatives.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

SCHNEIDER: In 1988, he helped rally conservatives to George W. Bush's father.

REAGAN: George, just one personal request, go out there and win one for the Gipper.

SCHNEIDER: Fifteen years later, Reagan still rallied conservatives. Last fall, CBS scheduled a mini-series, "The Reagans," that included unflattering portrayals of the former president and First Lady.

Michael Paranzino started a Web site, boycottcbs.com.

MICHAEL PARANZINO, FOUNDER, BOYCOTTCBS.COM: We're taking out eyeballs elsewhere. And we're taking our wallets and our pocketbooks elsewhere.

SCHNEIDER: CBS moved the mini-series to a cable network after conservatives rallied to defend their ailing hero.

When George W. Bush needed to rally conservatives behind his campaign, there was no more potent symbol than Ronald Reagan.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ronald Reagan's leadership revived America's economy, renewed America's strength and lifted America's confidence.

And that spirit of optimism and faith in fundamental American values is the spirit we will carry to victory in November of 2004.

SCHNEIDER: Reagan's death will be marked by elaborate memorials and occasions for the nation to mourn.

NANCY REAGAN, RONALD REAGAN'S WIFE: Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him.

SCHNEIDER: It will put the presidential campaign on hold for some time. Conservatives may feel a call to arms to win one more for the Gipper. But these things can backfire. In 2002, Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash in Minnesota 11 days before election day. Wellstone was a hero to the left.

Many voters were put off when Wellstone supporters turned his memorial service into what looked like a political rally.

RICK KAHN, FRIEND, SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE: We are begging you to help us win this Senate election for Paul Wellstone.

SCHNEIDER: In the end, the seat was lost to the Republicans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: Reagan's legacy belongs to the entire country. It could be a serious political mistake if conservatives try to appropriate it for political purposes -- Aaron.

AARON BROWN, HOST: It's just a small thing, but it's actually quite interesting to note how powerful he is within the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to the point where you now fly into Reagan National Airport in Washington, and there was -- I think even Mrs. Reagan found it quite unseemly, this attempt to replace the "R" on the quarter, I guess it would be.

But he owned their hearts.

SCHNEIDER: He certainly did. I mean, to conservatives, 1980 is the year one. Nothing of importance happened before 1980, before Ronald Reagan.

And the whole conservative movement and even those Republicans who aren't part of it, all of them came from Ronald Reagan. Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, John McCain. They were all, in some way or another, Reaganites. They all came from under Reagan's umbrella.

So the whole Republican Party traces its lineage, its legitimacy to this one man.

BROWN: Bill, thank you. Good to have you with us on a Saturday night as well. An important one. Bill Schneider, with us from Washington tonight.

We note the passing today of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. We'll take a break and CNN's special coverage and this special edition of NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we're back late on a Saturday night to mark the passing of the 40th president of the United States.

Ronald Wilson Reagan died this afternoon at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. Mr. Reagan was 93. He'd been well for some days or weeks. We don't know all the details of this, though we do know in recent days -- let's leave it at that -- his health, his physical health took a bad turn.

He had been suffering from Alzheimer's' for more than a decade.

In many ways, Mr. Reagan lived several lives. There was this life, the life in Washington where flags fly tonight at half staff, where the nation will publicly mourn the president over the course of the next week until his body is flown, eventually, back to California.

He was a deeply private man in many respects, and as we talked about in the last hour, in some respects we didn't know him all that well. Over the next hour, we'll talk about what we do know and understand, the public side, what was and what's to come with the remembrances over the next several days.

Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House tonight, and it is late. Suzanne, good evening to you. Are you able to get much detail yet?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in terms of the schedule, we don't have the details of that, but we do know how the day unfolded.

The flag flies at half staff here, of course, at the White House, as they do at all federal installations. That is by order of the president.

We know that the president's aides found out early in the day. They got a heads up that Reagan's health had taken a turn for the worst. The president was notified of Mr. Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 Eastern Standard Time, shortly after 10 p.m. Paris time, in the evening.

President Bush has met with French President Jacques Chirac earlier in the day. He is there, of course, in France for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day, remembrances in Normandy.

And we understand it happened this way. It was Reagan's former chief of staff, Fred Ryan who had called White House chief of staff Andy Card.

Card immediately went to Mr. Bush to wake him of the news. We are told that the president's first words upon hearing of the news, he said, "It's a sad day for America."

Now Mr. Bush called former first lady Nancy Reagan shortly after midnight, Paris time, to offer the country's prayers and condolences. Shortly afterwards, from the hallway of the residence of the U.S. embassy in Paris, he delivered these remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility and the humor that comes with wisdom.

He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now Aaron, we are just moments away. The president is actually going to be waking up and he's going to be participating on Sunday in the events in Normandy, France, the 60th anniversary of D- Day.

And that is where, of course, he is going to be meeting with other world leaders. We expect that he will make additional remarks in honor of President Ronald Reagan.

Of course, he will also come back here. He will be traveling to Sea Island, Georgia, to host the G-8 summit. Again, with many leaders from around the globe gathering at that time, there is still uncertainty in terms of when the schedule -- they are waiting for that schedule from the Reagan family to determine just when the Memorial Day service is going to be. But of course, the president participating that as well.

BROWN: The G-8 summit is scheduled to begin what day?

MALVEAUX: On Tuesday.

BROWN: OK. And that includes many of the people who would come to the country for a state funeral in any case,

So without knowing for certain that it would get assumed that through the course of mid-week and beyond, the official events in Washington will probably pay oat.

MALVEAUX: Well, that's certainly right, Aaron. That's the sense that we're getting here, as well. In fact, all of those world leaders are here. In all likelihood. You are going to see those commemorations, those memorials, begin.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you very much -- Suzanne Malveaux.,

Ronald Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president of the United States. For many years, he was the oldest living former president.

The last chapter of his life was not an easy one, not for him and certainly not for his family. But what came before was quite remarkable.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

R. REAGAN: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The guy could deliver a line. An actor by trade, a communicator by nature.

R. REAGAN: We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning, as though prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye. And slipped the solar bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.

CROWLEY: Born in Illinois February 6, 1911, Ronald Reagan started out in radio in Iowa, made it to Hollywood, married two leading ladies, became a father of four, and then took on a new role: politician.

He was elected governor of California, ran for president and stole a line from the movies.

R. REAGAN: I am paying for this microphone, Mister...

CROWLEY: He won, at age 69 the oldest man ever elected to the White House.

R. REAGAN: That I will faithfully execute the office of president for the United States.

CROWLEY: Reagan nearly died in an assassination attempt, but a quick recovery cemented his image as a tough guy on a mission.

There were critics of huge deficits and painful spending cuts. And there were controversies: Iran-Contra, an arms sale deal with Iran to fund so-called freedom fighters in Nicaragua.

R. REAGAN: As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities.

CROWLEY: He had a deceptively simple agenda.

R. REAGAN: Our government is too big, and it spends too much.

CROWLEY: Lower taxes, smaller government, a stronger military.

R. REAGAN: The American uniform is once again worn with pride.

CROWLEY: Above all, an end to communism.

R. REAGAN: For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.

CROWLEY: Never one for inside the Beltway, he loved his place in the mountains above Santa Barbara, Rancho del Cielo, and entertained royalty there. And they returned the favor on their turf.

His eyesight was too poor to serve in combat, but his was the greatest generation, and he remembered them often, most memorably at Normandy, on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.

R. REAGAN: What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here?

We look at you, and somehow we know the answer: it was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love. CROWLEY: He served for eight years of history and then returned home to California. Bidding his party farewell four years later, the Great Communicator wrote his own epitaph.

REAGAN: And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: And at least in the first draft of his legacy, he is being remembered that way. Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said, "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile."

And on a live broadcast this morning, Garrison Keillor said that Reagan for years befuddled, quote, "us old liberals, mainly with his great shining charm which never, ever failed him" -- Aaron.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. Candy Crowley in Washington.

I just have this feeling that Mr. Reagan would be -- probably was appalled by the personal nature of politics these days, how nasty it often is, too often is, in our view. That was not his way, not his style. He was of another time and another school, for which the country, whether you agreed with him or not, was better off.

He was -- perhaps this is why -- a Midwestern boy. He came from humble roots; he grew up to be president. A storybook tale.

He was born in a second floor apartment. His father sold shoes. Those who knew young Ronald Reagan would say later that the boy remembered, never less the man.

More on that from CNN's Jonathan Freed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As president, Ronald Reagan would be dubbed the Great Communicator for his ability to explain complex issues in simple terms.

R. REAGAN: And it took 300 people in my Office of Management and Budget just to read the bill so the government wouldn't shut down.

FREED: But, from the time of his youth here in Illinois, they simply dubbed him Dutch.

He was born in 1911 to parents Jack and Nell in the town of Tampico. The Reagans settled in Dixon when Dutch was 9 years old.

R. REAGAN: We were a family that could only be described as poor in a financial way and material way. And yet, we had a very happy life, the four of us.

FREED: Ronald Reagan spent hours at the Dixon Library and at the First Christian Church.

He played football, performed in school plays, and yes, he was president of the student council.

Some of his strongest hometown memories, though, flow from the river.

HELEN LAWTON, REAGAN FAMILY FRIEND: I can still see the doc out here with Dutch walking up and down the docks, with his swimming suit on that said "Life Guard," with a whistle around his neck.

FREED: Stories that made him smile decades later.

LAWTON: One man dove in and lost his false teeth, and he wanted them back very badly. And he asked Dutch if he would please dive in and find them. And after several dives, he found them.

FREED: In 1928, Ronald Reagan headed to Eureka College, just 60 miles south or Dixon. He played on the Golden Tornado football team and was captain and then coach of the swim team. He kept up the acting and was president of the student senate.

He lived on the third floor or the TKE fraternity house and made money washing dishes with Elmer Fisher, who like many of the president's contemporaries, has also passed away.

ELMER FISHER, FRIEND OF RONALD REAGAN: I know he's a good dish washer, because I worked with him. He did a good job.

FREED: The Ronald Reagan exhibit at Eureka showcases his degree in economics and sociology, an old college essay, his yearbook, and even a certificate from the Red Cross that he received for saving a child from drowning while he was governor of California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome home, Dutch.

FREED: In 1990, Mr. Reagan returned to Dixon for the last time, drawn again to the river.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You really pulled seven people out of here?

R. REAGAN: Yes. Supposed to be the log. I used to cut a notch in a log for every one of them.

FREED: And he toured the restored home where he grew up.

R. REAGAN: Looks pretty much like it always did.

FREED: The friends of his younger years consider it remarkable that the man who would be president never stopped being the regular guy they knew and loved.

WILFRED "TUBBY" MILLER, REAGAN COLLEGE FRIEND: He was just one of us. That's another reason why he was a bigger surprise to us, probably, then the people that didn't know him to see how well he's done (ph). FREED: And if a measure of a person's worth on Earth is how they think of you after you're gone, some of those who knew Ronald Reagan take his measure by the way his personality, they say, raised the spirits of a nation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREED: Aaron, people say that Ronald Reagan had a way, a grandfatherly way, of calling the nation to his knee, patting it reassuringly on the head, and telling it that everything was going to be all right.

Well, when the future president was little more than knee high, he moved into the home behind me. Now, we've been talking to the good people of Dixon, Illinois, and many of them are saying that they were, in many ways, mentally prepared for what was going to happen today. The man was 93 years old. It was know for awhile that he hasn't been well.

But more than a few have told us that even though they knew that this was coming, that they knew that this day was not that far off, it was still like being confronted by a parent's death. And that say that no matter how much you can try to prepare for that in advance, when you're actually facing it, it's still very difficult to take -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jonathan, thank you. Jonathan Freed, Dixon, Illinois, tonight.

Robert Novak needs no introduction to our viewers, certainly. And he joins us, I assume, from Washington. There you are.

I asked Bob Dart (ph) this question earlier. Who are the people that politically influenced him? Who -- who did he listen to? Who had his ear?

ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": I don't believe that he was greatly influenced by anybody, except, I think, Nancy Reagan influenced him, really, on smaller things, rather than larger things.

One of the misconceptions about Reagan is that he was a kind of a slow-witted fellow. He was an intellectual. He was -- he read the -- the economic texts of Baustioff (ph), Steel and Compton in Britain.

He was greatly -- he was a great reader. And I think he was influenced in no small part by the past and particularly on economics, a desire to return to the past.

I don't believe there was anybody who controlled him or had his ear. I don't think there was a Colonel House (ph), as there was with -- with Woodrow Wilson. Or even some of the very close aids of Richard Nixon and H.R.Haldeman.

I think he was a -- he was a very, in many ways a solitary figure who learned much of what he -- he ventured into in politics through very extensive reading, which goes against the -- the conventional wisdom.

BROWN: It certainly does. You mentioned Mrs. Reagan and her influence on matters small. And some of them, obviously, had to do with image and other things. But she was an enormously important barometer for him about how things were going.

NOVAK: I think so. I think ideologically I always had the idea that Nancy Reagan was a little bit more liberal than -- than Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a very, very conservative fellow.

Naturally, through this long, dark Alzheimer's, there's been a softening of the image. And when anybody dies, nobody wants to be ideological, but a lot of people who didn't care for him much in life are saying that he was a conscientious -- he was a compassionate conservative or even -- I even heard the word "liberal" mentioned.

But he was quite conservative. And I thought he was more conservative than Nancy was.

BROWN: You think he was more conservative than George W. Bush is?

NOVAK: I don't think there's any question about that. I think -- I think he was -- I don't think he did all the conservative things he wanted to do, such as the gold standard, and I think he would have wanted to do that.

I don't think he -- he cut down governments in the size that he wanted it to. Of course, he was a practical man. He was -- he did what he could. And he did much more than any president in my lifetime did.

But I think he is -- is really intuitively and instinctively quite more conservative either of the Bushes and couldn't -- the present Bush is more conservative than his father was

BROWN: Was his election in 1980, and maybe even in some respects the failed campaign in '76, the knife in the heart of the moderate wing of the Republican Party?

NOVAK: I think it was part of a massive realignment, Aaron, that was arrested in part by Watergate and the disgrace of Richard Nixon and Nixon's fall from power.

A realignment of the South going into the Republican Party becoming more conservative. The Eastern seaboard and New England going to the Democratic Party.

I think in the midst of this realignment, which may be nearing its end right now. Ronald Reagan came along and was acceptable to so many so-called Reagan Democrats, blue collar Democrats who are quite conservative, but they couldn't ever quite swallow Richard Nixon. But they took to -- to Reagan quite naturally.

But this -- the Republican Party was becoming a more inhospitable party for the -- for the liberals. When Reagan came in, and I believe he accelerated the process.

And you mentioned the 1976 campaign, which was extraordinarily important. Because everybody in the party wanted Reagan to drop out after...

BROWN: Yes.

NOVAK: ... President Ford defeated him in New Hampshire and Illinois. And they said, "You're just wasting your time." And he stayed in, and he won the North Carolina primary.

If he had not stayed in and won North Carolina, Texas, California, several other states, he never -- he would have been considered an absolute has-been and a failure. He never would have been nominated in 1980.

BROWN: And just -- just briefly here -- I hope this isn't inappropriate to throw in on this sort of day, but that campaign, the '76 campaign, created some bad feelings between former President Ford and -- and Mr. Reagan.

NOVAK: Well, it did. And of course, we don't want to get into -- we don't have the time for the detail, but there was almost a terrible thing that happened at the convention in Detroit, where Ronald Reagan came to the very edge of signing off on a co-presidency to make Gerry Ford the vice president, where they would be co- presidents.

Really, anti-constitutional, unconstitutional. And his better judgment prevailed.

I think Ronald Reagan had very good judgment, and he really saw that this was not in the -- in the American way of things. And he stopped from making a terrible mistake and instead picked the senior George Bush as his vice president.

BROWN: Well, I want all the detail on that story. I'll see you in Washington tomorrow. Mr. Novak, thank you sir. Bob Novak with us tonight.

We'll take a break. We have much more on an important life in American life as flags fly at half staff. That's Simi Valley, California, where the Reagan Library is. And we'll visit that and much more as we continue on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As with all presidents, Ronald Reagan has a presidential library. It is in the rolling hills, just a bit north and a bit east of Los Angeles in the town of Simi Valley. It is also where he will finally be laid to rest by the end of next week sometime, we presume.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is there for us tonight, and I suspect she is not alone. Good evening to you. THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is absolutely right, Aaron -- I am not alone. In fact, many members of the media are here right now.

Now, this library is also the largest presidential library. The flags here are flying at half staff and the library was open all day today, just about until the moment that the -- we heard news that the president had died. After that, it closed, but it certainly did not keep mourners away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): It was a spontaneous moment: mourners listening to "Amazing Grace" through a car stereo.

At the entrance to the library, dozens of people gathered throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Some were visibly moved and emotional as they placed cards, flags and flowers, even a jar of jellybeans at the entrance to the Reagan Library.

This is a library that normally has 400 visitors a day. It houses 50 million pages of records and documents which cover his days as governor of California from 1966 to 1970 and his two terms as president, as well as a piece of the Berlin Wall that is out here and Air Force one, which flew the president more than 600,000 miles.

Now Aaron, one gift shop owner told me earlier today the phones were ringing off the hook. She says that people were just calling in and wanting to give their condolences -- Aaron.

Thelma, thank you. It's a very sweet thing in -- that people do in moments like this, they just want to be a part of the moment. And it's nice to see. Thank you for your work today.

BROWN: As a Hollywood actor, Ronald Reagan was a staunch union member who was the president of the Acreen Actors' Guild.

He once said of his early political philosophy, "I was a near hopeless hemophiliac liberal. I bled for causes. I voted Democratic, following my father in every election. I was blindly (ph) and visually joining...

Every organization I could find that would guarantee to save the world. He said that once.

Later, he would come to believe that big government was the real evil, from which people needed saving.

Regardless of his political affiliation, Mr. Reagan's ability to make people feel he was on their side won him much admiration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a very sad day for our country. Though Ronald Reagan has been ill for long time the finality of all of this is going to his the American people very hard.

And Barbara and I mourn the loss of a great president and for us a great friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think despite what many people would say, that he -- he had the fortitude to face down the -- the Russian empire and was a believer in the American system. So I don't think it would be his legacy.

BOB DOLE, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just a great guy, and did a lot for this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had a great personality, and I know he was very communicative, and he was very open, and he was great with people, and that's what counts.

GOV. BOB TAFT: He connected with people in a remarkable way. It was exceptional. I think that was so much a part of his leadership. His ability to communicate his belief and love for America, his vision, for prosperity, his vision for a strong America and the world. And that really restored our self-confidence, and inspired us, I think all to greater things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He presided over a period of great prosperity and stability. And probably the last bit of stability we will ever -- we have experienced in this country.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Ronald America won America's respect with his greatness. And won it's love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction. The strength that comes with character. The grace that comes with humility. And the humor that comes with wisdom. He leaves behind a nation he restored, and a world he helped save.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have such a profound respect for him not only as a president, but as a person. He and Nancy I think they were an example as a married couple. You know, their love and support, and the mutual respect they had for one another was an inspiration to all of us.

RUDY GIULIANI, FMR MAYOR OF NEW YORK: The man loved people. And he had this great strength of conviction. And as a result of that, he was able to change America and the world in the direction of his convictions, rather than being one of these politicians who you know, reads public opinion polls, and shifts and changes. Ronald Reagan was Ronald Reagan. And he knew what he believed, and he was a able to change the world as a result of that.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: Rudy Giuliani on Ronald Reagan, the former Mayor was out at the track today hoping to see a triple crown that didn't happen. When we come back, Jeff Greenfield on the humor of the 40th president. That's Santa Monica, California tonight, out by the ocean in southern California. Flags and flowers and notes there remembering the president and his family on this sad day. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Someone once said that President Dwight Eisenhower's to- political philosophy was his smile. President Reagan's philosophy on the other hand was very well defined whether you liked it or not. But with political friend and foe alike, that smile didn't hurt either. Here again, Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): 1980, The Al Smith dinner in New York. Ronald Reagan's age is an issue that overhangs the presidential campaign. President Carter Reagan says called him with a question.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT UNITES STATES: Ronald, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) how come you look younger everyday when I see your new picture of you riding horseback? And I said well Jimmy, that's easy. I just keep riding older horses.

GREENFIELD: So much for the age issue. But in 1984, Reagan stumbles badly in his first debate with Walter Mondale.

REAGAN: But I also believe something else about that. I believe that -- and when I became governor of California, I started out.

GREENFIELD: And whispers about his age are getting louder. Then in the second debate, Reagan says...

REAGAN: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience.

GREENFIELD: So much for the age issue. Two years later, President Reagan confronts another issue. Is he lazy?

REAGAN: I don't know about you, but I've been working long hours. I've really been burning the midday oil.

GREENFIELD: All through his public life, Reagan demonstrated as skillful a use of humor as any political figure. Reporter Lou Cannon, who chronicled Reagan throughout his political career, says it was far more than simply a pleasant personality trait.

LOU CANNON: I think Reagan's humor was the key to his political success.

REAGAN: I'm so desperate for attention I almost considered holding a news conference.

CANNON: Reagan knew that if you make fun of yourself, that you establish a bond with people. He did it all the time.

GREENFIELD: He knew by instinct, or by experience, that if you joke about a presumed week spot, people relax about it. If it doesn't bother me the joke says, it shouldn't bother you.

REAGAN: Preparing me for a press conference was like reinventing the wheel. It's not true. I was around when the wheel was invented, and it was easier.

GREENFIELD: Thus, Reagan's acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican Convention began by noting his first career.

REAGAN: For the first thrill tonight was to find myself for the first time in a long time in a movie on Prime Time.

GREENFIELD: But Reagan's humor was also a tool he used to defang opponents. Some of whom saw Reagan as a dangerous extremist. Long time Reagan aid, Mike Deaver.

MIKE DEAVER: In some instances probably, that's what people had thought before they came into the room, id they believed everything they had read about him. So he did use humor to sort of soften his own image.

GREENFIELD: And long time political adversaries like Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder agree.

PAT SCHROEDER, FMR. CONGRESSWOMAN: He had kind of this little (UNINTELLIGIBLE), this little twinkle that worked when he was dealing with people. So the folks that come in very angry about something, but they would kind of melt down. I wish he had more substance. He couldn't have had more grace. And humor is a wonderful way to have grace, and take the edge off life, which a lot of people need to do today.

GREENFIELD: His humor was a gift on display at the most serious of moments. When he was shot in 1981, he was quoted as saying to the doctors "I hope you're all Republicans."

DEAVER: That was the beginning of the real change in people's perceptions about Reagan.

GREENFIELD: That says Michael Deaver, was grace under fire.

REAGAN: I heard those speakers at that other convention saying we won the Cold War. And I couldn't help wondering just who exactly do they mean by we?

GREENFIELD: And his humor was there in one of his last public appearances. At the 1992 Republican Convention where he mocked both Bill Clinton, and himself.\

REAGAN: This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well, let me tell you something. I knew Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: In politics, humor is like nitroglycerin. Powerful, but dangerous. In the wrong hands, attempts of humor have ended political careers. In the hands of a master like Ronald Reagan, there is no better tool. Jeff Greenfield, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: For years, Jeane Kirkpatrick was one of Ronald Reagan's most fervent supporters. She ultimately served him as the American Ambassador to the United Nations. But she was much much more than that. We're happy to say that Ambassador Kirkpatrick is joining us tonight. It's nice to see you.

The President had, not a simplistic, but in some respects a very simple view that if we could spread free markets, we could spread freedom and prosperity. Fair enough?

JEANE KIRKPATRICK, FMR AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: I think that's fair.

BROWN: And it was almost a religion to him.

KIRKPATRICK: Well he believed that free markets were very important.

BROWN: How did that play out in his foreign policy? It's one thing to believe it, it's another thing to try and sell it.

KIRKPATRICK: Well I had the experience at the United Nations early on of being confronted with the need -- the instruction really -- to present the United States principle speech at something called the Echosoc (ph) conference. That's economic and social council. At which he was meeting leaders of the -- world leaders. The whole. To discuss the question of development.

The issue was how can the developed countries most effectively help the least developed countries to make their way to greater affluence. And he felt -- he understood the problem. And the problem was that the most developed countries had -- he felt all been taking the free market road to development. But nobody knew it.

And he wanted very much early in his presidency to explain at every opportunity, and have members of his cabinet explain at every opportunity how the free market road to development got countries to development. And how that is you know -- the that rather than north south schemes is what the world ought to be paying attention to at that stage.

BROWN: A couple other areas if I may? How did he see -- did he see a difference between the Russians and the Chinese? Did he feel that one was a more solvable problem if you will, than the other?

KIRKPATRICK: I don't think I know the answer to that. I was -- had many conversations with President Reagan about the Soviet Union frankly. And not just about the Russians, about the Soviet Union. He thought of them as Soviet Communists. Rather than Russians you know?

And he was very much aware of the spread of Soviet Communism to the world. China was one piece of that. But I did not have a sense that he conceived China as an independent problem.

BROWN: Madam Ambassador, it was nice to talk to you tonight. Thank you. It's an important night, and your words are helpful in understanding the man who passed away today, thank you.

We're joined now from San Francisco by Kiron Skinner, one of the editors of what truly is one of the more fascinating political books, if that's the right way to put it. "Reagan in His Own Hand," which examines several hundred radio commentaries Mr. Reagan wrote out in long-hand, and delivered between 1975 and 1979. Miss Skinner is also a professor of history and political science at Carnegie Melon University. And so we're glad to see her with us tonight. Welcome.

Do you see when you look at his writing in that period of his life, before he becomes president, but when he is very active politically. Is there an evolution, or is it in stone?

KIRON SKINNER, CARNEGIE MELON UNIVERSITY: I think there's a political evolution between 1975 and 1979. When he steps down as governor of California in early 1975, January, he immediately begins a radio broadcast that is on more than 300 radio stations. A newspaper column. He gives about 10 speeches a month.

And you see his ideas and his themes becoming increasingly more sophisticated over time. His understanding of the Cold War, of the Soviet Union, of U.S. grand strategy, of the economic challenges. He becomes increasingly more sophisticated, and thoughtful, and elegantly reductionist over those years.

BROWN: Help me understand the last sentence.

SKINNER: You said in your conversation with Ambassador Kirkpatrick that Reagan had a couple of simple ideas. I think that about the Cold War, about markets and so forth.

BROWN: Yes.

SKINNER: I think Reagan did have some quote/unquote, simple ideas, but they were derived from hard work and study. And what our books, my co-edited books with Martin and Anaulee Sanderson (ph) of Stanford show Reagan was working out in great detail reading and writing to come up with the very quote/unquote simple hypothesis that guided him.

He had four about the Cold War, and they seemed like heresy at the time. And they might have seemed simple, but in detail, they were very hard. And he actually used those words quite often. He said first, the Soviet Union he felt was so weak at bottom, he was saying this in the '70s now, at the height of detente, when we thought that the U.S. and the Soviet Union were kind of coming together in a way, and that there had to be a recognition of the Soviet Union as more of a normal state in the international system.

He said no. The Soviet Union is so weak at bottom, it's economy, that it can't sustain the technology race with us and recover. Second, he argued, and many Sovietologists disagreed straight through his presidency until the Soviet Union fell apart. He said the sole source of legitimacy of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the countries will go their own way. We know that happened after 1989. Third, he argues that the American economy was so strong at bottom that it could sustain maybe some deficits, definitely a technology race and recover. And finally, and this seemed very much like heresy shortly after Vietnam, but he was making this case.

That the American public would support something like peacetime rearmament. If American leaders would only explain that that was a strategy to get a very different goal, which was mutual cooperation with our adversary, the Soviet Union.

So he seems like he's ...I'll stop there.

BROWN: I'm sorry, I felt like I was a student in the class there for a minute. Let me throw in -- let me ask one more question. In sort of researching him, reading him over time, does he ever express regrets for positions he took. We're all a product of our times. But he was vehement in his opposition to Medicare for example in the '60s. He was not a supporter of the 1964 civil rights act for example.

Do we ever see in him an evolution of his social thinking in that regard?

SKINNER: I think that's an excellent question Aaron. We do see that in Ronald Reagan. And I think one of the best examples -- you are right. He didn't support the 1964 civil rights legislation. And a good example of I think an evolution in Reagan's thinking and sometimes a quick updating was the fact that signed the Martin Luther King holiday. After earlier having wondered aloud in a press conference if Martin Luther King had been associated with communists.

He signed the bill starting the holiday, and also called Mrs. King to apologize. So we do see Reagan being very adept at changing and adapting to times. And updating his own philosophies.

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. Will you come back this week?

SKINNER: I sure will.

BROWN: Thank you much.

SKINNER: Bye.

BROWN: Thank you. We'll take a break here. We're a look at some of the morning papers, other things to do in our last 10 minutes or so with you tonight. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Just a few morning papers from around the country. Headlines are interesting, but the pictures they chose are I think the most notable on a day like today. This is how the "Boston Herald" will arrive on the doorsteps of the good folks in Boston tomorrow. "Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004 American Legend." And that's the picture they chose, and that's a good one.

"The Richmond Times Dispatch," does a drawing. But this is a drawing you are going to see a lot of, or a picture you'll see a lot of. "The Great Communicator" is the headline. And the lead reads Ronald Wilson Reagan, a president who shaped the politics of his own country, and the balance of global power, dies yesterday in his home in California. He was 93, the longest living president.

Quickly here both, I'll show them both to you. "Newsweek," recognize that picture? You don't get "Newsweek"? You get "Time"? Well we're pleased around here to here that by the way. Actually we love them both. Same picture. In a commemorative edition in both. And these guys were scrambling today, believe me. They go to bed on Saturdays so they had to redo the magazines.

"Charlotte Observer" farewell Mr. President. That's a nice shot TOOBIN: . The "Cincinnati Inquirer," Nation mourns loss of Reagan. And we also end this with the "Chicago Sun Times." And we will again tonight. This is the picture. And this is to me the picture of Ronald Reagan. Cowboy hat and all. We'll wrap up the night in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As we mentioned early on in the program, by the end of Ronald Reagan's second term, some of the luster had left the administration, and some of the gleam had gone out of his eye. He remained however, the consummate communicator. January 11th, 1989 after eight years in office, he spoke to Americans for one last time from the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAGAN: My fellow Americans, this is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval Office, and the last. We've been together eight years now, and soon it will be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to share some thoughts. Some of which I've been saving for a long time.

It's been the honor of my life to be your president. So many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks. But I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve. One of the things about the presidency is that you're always somewhat apart.

You spend a lot of time going by to fast in a car someone else is driving. And seeing the people through tinted glass, the parents holding up a child, and the wave you saw to late and couldn't return. And so many times I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass and connect. Well maybe I can do a little of that tonight.

People ask how I feel about leaving. And the fact is parting is such sweet sorrow. The sweet part is California, on the ranch and freedom. The sorrow, the good byes of course, and leaving this beautiful place. I won a nickname, The Great Communicator. But I never thought it was my style or the words that I used that made a difference. It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things. And they didn't spring full bloom from my brow. They came from the heart of a great nation.

From our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan Revolution. Well, I'll accept that. But for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery. A rediscovery of our values, and our common sense.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So we cut the people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before. I've been asked if I have any regrets. Well I do. The deficit is one. I've been talking a great deal about that lately.

But tonight isn't for arguments, and I'm going to hold my tongue. But in observation, I've had my share of victories in the congress. But what few people noticed is I never won anything you didn't win for me. The never saw my truce. They never saw Reagan's regimens. The American people. You won every battle with every call you made, and letter you wrote demanding action.

Well action is still needed. If we are to finish the job of Reagan's regimens, we'll have to become the Bush Brigades. Soon, he'll be the chief. And he'll need you every bit as much as I did. We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan Revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back.

My friends, we did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. And so good-bye, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Unlike most countries, the United States embodies in it's president both the Head of State, and political leadership. On days like this, it is a good thing to keep in mind, that whether you agreed with President Reagan on the issues or not, the political side. He was the head of state, you state. And so we can mourn tonight, and we do his passing even as we are relieved for his family which has struggled for 10 years.

We'll see you tomorrow from Washington. Good night.

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Aired June 5, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again, everyone. We mourn tonight as a country officially and personally the death of Ronald Reagan, but our national sadness, which is perfectly right ought to be tempered but why we also know is true.
Mr. Reagan for most of his 93 years a wonderful, full and rich life. A child of small town America, who went West as the country went West, who lived in the dream world of Hollywood and then found a second calling.

He was not a perfect man, not a perfect president, no one is. But in his presidency, he often found the per pitch for where the country was and wanted to go.

And in the end, to the strength of his wife, he helped us all better understand the illness that took him away long before infection took his life today. That too was about courage. Courage of a different sort, for which tonight we can also be quite grateful.

We begin with the whip. And the whip begins in Bel Air, California, Frank Buckley, outside the Reagan home. Since early today, Frank, the headline from there tonight?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, family members were by his side as the 40th president of the United States died at home here in Bel Air. Now his flag draped casket is on its way to several days of national mourning -- Aaron?

BROWN: Frank, thank you. On to Capitol Hill, CNN's Joe Johns. Ronald Reagan being remembered by members of Congress tonight. So Joe, a headline from there?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, reactions to the passing of President Reagan are coming in from both Democrats and Republicans. They all remember him fondly. Meanwhile, plans for this funeral have been in the works for years, but it will still be quite an undertaking for the city of Washington, D.C.

BROWN: Joe, thank you. Jeff Greenfield's in Charleston, South Carolina tonight. Jeff, a headline from you?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, Ronald Reagan cast a huge shadow over the presidency for eight years. He continues to do that for -- to this day. But in the years after he left the White House, he shunned the limelight. And ultimately, as we all know, Alzheimer's caught up with him and took him on a 10 year journey far from the center that he had occupied for so long, Aaron.

BROWN: Jeff, get back to you as well. And finally, Moscow where the former president made a major mark. CNN's Jill Dougherty is there. Jill, a headline from Moscow tonight?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Russia, Aaron, Ronald Reagan will always be remembered as the symbol of the Cold War, the man who invented the phrase "the evil empire."

BROWN: Jill, thank you very much.

We have lots to do in the couple of hours. We hope you stay with us on this Saturday night. It all begins in Bel Air, California, outside the Reagan family home. It was appropriate that the family went back to California. It is where Mr. Reagan seemed to feel most comfortable, out West, out there.

Ronald Reagan died as we just heard with much of his family at his side. CNN's Frank Buckley joins us again -- Frank?

BUCKLEY: Aaron, we're told that Nancy Reagan was by his side, as was Patty and Ron, Jr. Michael came later in the afternoon, after spending Friday with the former president.

At about 5:15 local time, about four hours after the president died, his flag draped casket was removed from the estate in a hearse and went by motorcade. Several LAPD motorcycle officers escorting the hearse, along with Secret Service agents, also part of the motorcade, as it went to Santa Monica to a mortuary there.

After that, the body is expected to go to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. That will begin the process several days long process in which the military district of Washington, which has the official responsibility of handling the affairs over the next several days, will take charge. That is considered day one, where the -- there will be a repose here in California.

Day two, the casket containing the former president will be transported to Washington, D.C. and repose at the National Cathedral overnight.

Day three, the casket will travel by hearse to 16th and Constitution, where a horse drawn carriage will provide the main funeral procession to the capitol, where government leaders are expected to accept the former president. There should be remarks there.

The public isn't expected to be invited to that portion, but the president is expected to lie in state for 17 to 24 hours. At that point to day four, the casket containing the body is moved to another location to the National Cathedral for the funeral.

And then on day five, the casket is returned to California for a funeral service and burial here in California -- Aaron?

BROWN: And am I right that while we know, sort of the order of things, we really don't know when the clock starts, when day one is, do we?

BUCKLEY: That's right, Aaron. It really depends on a couple things. But primarily, it depends on when the family is prepared for the clock to begin. At the end of the day, Nancy Reagan and other family members will say here's what we do want, here's what we don't want, and here's when we want this process to begin.

BROWN: OK. But it obviously is going to play out over the next week in front of a world audience.

Just Frank, a couple quick things if I might, the first inklings we got that the former president had taken a bad turn was yesterday. Had there been chatter out there even before yesterday that his death was imminent?

BUCKLEY: Well, there, as you probably know, Aaron, there's been chatter repeatedly over the past several years, at various times. And that seemed to increase in a more serious way over the weekend.

There were some who told us that during this past week, that there had been a turn for the worst, not necessarily today, but during the week that something had taken place. And we had, as others had, prepared in some way for this event to occur, but tried to be as sensitive as possible to the family and what was happening without reporting it until we knew something concrete.

And as you know today, we began reporting what sources familiar with the situation ultimately said, which was that there had been a turn for the worse.

BROWN: Just in that regard, the family or spokespeople for the family had always been quick to shoot down rumors that the former president's death was imminent. And when they didn't shoot these down, it became pretty clear that things were turning as they finally did.

Frank, it's been a long day for you. Thank you. Frank Buckley in Bel Air, California, part of -- up there by Beverly Hills, California, where the president lived after he left office.

President Bush was in Paris when he learned of President Reagan's death earlier today. Tomorrow, of course, Mr. Bush will mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy.

He released a statement shortly after speaking to former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Our senior White House correspondent John King is traveling with the president. And John joins us in the early morning from Paris. John, good evening.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Aaron. Good morning from Paris.

Mr. Bush, in fact, had just turned in here in Paris, 10:00 Saturday night Paris time, when his chief of staff came knocking at the door. Mr. Bush perhaps knew what was -- what he was about to hear from the other side, because earlier in the day, he had been warned Mr. Reagan's health was deteriorating. And in fact, chief of staff Andy Card told the president again just after 10:00 at night here in Paris that the 40th president of the United States had indeed passed away at his home in California.

Mr. Bush immediately ordered flags at the White House and all federal government buildings flown at half staff for the next 30 days, instructed his staff to get about the business of planning those memorial services and the state funeral you just spoke of with Frank Buckley.

He placed a five minute call to Nancy Reagan. Both the president and First Lady Laura Bush voicing their condolences and their sadness in that phone conversation. Then Mr. Bush did come out to make a public statement, telling reporters that this was "a sad hour in the life of America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom.

He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self doubt. And because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny.

Now in laying our leader to rest, we say thank you. He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him. May God bless Ronald Reagan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is a president who often models himself on Ronald Reagan. On the world stage and like on this trip to Europe, he talked optimistically about American values and freedom. He also is, like Ronald Reagan, was a bit unpopular in Europe at this moment in time.

At home, of course, Mr. Bush came to office and pushed a giant tax cut, much like Ronald Reagan did. This is the son, of course, of a president named Bush, but he politically is much more, you might say, a descendant of Ronald Reagan.

And as this president marked with sadness the death of Ronald Reagan here in Paris, France, his father, again who was Ronald Reagan's vice president for eight years before becoming president of the United States in his right, offered his tribute from the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People ask me, "Well what was so special about President Reagan?" And on a personal basis, it was his kindness, his decency, his sense of humor. Unbelievable.

And he had a wonderful way where you could disagree with him. He'd have leaders in Congress or foreign leaders that he'd disagree with. And yet, he was never disagreeable about it himself. He was never mean spirited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: President Bush will awake here in Paris in just a few hours. He will stick to his schedule, attending the 60th anniversary commemoration of the allied landing, the D-Day landing, at Normandy. We are told he will offer more words of tribute to President Reagan in his address there in the morning.

Then it is back to the United States. Aaron, as of now, the White House tells us Mr. Bush is sticking to his schedule, the planned group of A summit in Sea Island, Georgia. But as the Reagan family sends word at exactly how and when they would like the funeral and the memorial service time table to unfold, we are told the president's schedule could change in the days ahead -- Aaron?

BROWN: Wow. And just the -- that summit puts a lot of the people who would be coming to the country for the funeral anyway in the country. And that -- so they'll obviously be some coordination there.

George W. Bush is almost, not quite, 40 years younger, than Ronald Reagan. Did they have a relationship? Did they know each other really?

KING: They knew each other, but they knew each other in a very different way. They did not know each other as members of the president's club. Mr. Reagan, of course, had Alzheimer's Disease by the time Mr. Bush came to office.

George Bush was frequently in the White House during his father's administration, including when his father was the vice president of the United States. So he did come to know Mr. Reagan. But he came to know him as an elder to a youngster, if you will. George W. Bush in his 20s and 30s in those days, his 40s even when his father was president. But they did not have a relationship as peers, but we are told that this president always admired Ronald Reagan.

At times there was talk of some friction that George Bush, then his vice president, was not given enough responsibility, had some hard feelings toward the Reagans. The Bush family disputes that vehemently. And you see as this president campaigns, not only he himself, but most of his political advisers, when they look for a model, they don't, as much as they respect George H. Walker Bush, they look at Ronald Reagan, not this president's father -- Aaron?

BROWN: As does the entire party pretty much these days. John, thank you. We've got a long day ahead. We appreciate you staying up with us tonight. John King, our senior White House correspondent.

Ronald Reagan didn't, in fact, touch off the revolution that bore his name. That really belongs to the late Senate Barry Goldwater of Arizona. But Senator Goldwater didn't win the White House and didn't have the coattails. And President did in Congress. And in some respects, the country, too is a different place because of it.

So the reaction tonight from Capitol Hill. And we go back to CNN's Joe Johns. Joe, good evening again.

JOHNS: Good evening, Aaron. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas called Ronald Reagan "the father of the modern Republican conservative movement," which is saying a lot. There are many Republicans on Capitol Hill who call themselves Reagan Republicans, who feel they owe their careers to the model that Ronald Reagan laid down.

So a number of comments, of course, from both sides of the aisle, starting with the Speaker of the House, who said in a statement today that "Ronald Reagan outlined a vision that captured the imagination of the free world, a vision that toppled the Communist empire, and freed countless millions."

We have many other statements, of course. Notably from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who said, "Above all, Ronald Reagan was a true patriot who's endless optimism inspired America's continued ascent to greatness. Undoubtedly, Ronald Reagan has left an indelible mark on our country and our global community."

And from the other side of the aisle, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said, "America has lost an icon. Ronald Reagan's leadership will inspire Americans for generations to come. His patriotism and devotion to our country will never be forgotten."

Of course, there were so many Democrats who fought against the Reagan revolution. Among them, Senator Ted Kennedy, the Democrat. He also issued a kind statement today, saying, "We often disagreed on issues of the day, but I had immense respect and admiration for his leadership and his extraordinary ability to inspire the nation to live up to its high ideals. The warmth of his personality always shone through. And his infectious optimism gave us all the feeling it was really was morning in America.

Just a few of the statements from members of Congress tonight on the passing of President Ronald Reagan.

As Frank Buckley has already alluded to, there are plans, of course, for a funeral, the type of funeral really not seen in this city since around 1973, when the funeral was held of President Lyndon Johnson. It will be a huge affair, of course. Security will have to be very tight. A number of things planned, as Frank indicated. Among them, a ceremony here at the Capitol. The president's casket lies in state. Thousands of people are expected to file past the casket. There is also anticipated some type of ceremony at the National Cathedral here in Washington, D.C. The date has not yet been set.

One thing I can tell you, the plans have been in the works for years. The camera positions, the lighting angles, where the media will be, where the people will file through. There are some challenges, however, here on Capitol Hill tonight, particularly the fact that there's a huge construction project going on, an underground visitor's center, which is being built and scheduled to be opened in early 2005. Of course, a number of people have been trying to figure out how to get people -- the public in and out of the Capitol for that. And presumably, it's all been worked out.

We'll see as these days go on. Back to you, Aaron.

BROWN: Just -- are you picking up anything, just going back to what Frank and I were talking about, about when the clock starts running here, when you expect the former president's body to arrive in Washington?

JOHNS: We've really been trying to gain that out. And it's very difficult, Frank, because as you know, we have the G-8 Summit going on. And the first question is whether the G-8 is going to change its time table in any way for the president to come here, because it's assumed, of course, that he's going to be involved in any ceremonies here at the Capitol. Really you have to figure what's going to happen with the G-8 and then determine when the funeral will be held, Aaron.

BROWN: It's a very delicate choreography that's going on. It's not -- there's no question here. It's an observation, I guess. We don't as a country do many of these big, almost royal sorts of events that state funerals can be like. We have very few in our lifetime in fact, but this is one of the things we do and the way we honor former presidents. And over the next week, I suspect, it'll play out over the next week. We'll watch it yet again for some of us for the fourth time in our lives.

Joe, thank you for your work tonight. Joe Johns on the Hill.

Frank Sesno covered Ronald Reagan and the White House. He was our bureau chief for a long time. He produced two hour documentary. "Ronald Reagan, a Legacy Remembered" for the History Channel. So he's kept reasonable busy.

It's always good to see him. What do we -- what don't we know in a sense? I mean, what are the great misconceptions about Ronald Reagan?

FRANK SESNO, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think one of the most compelling misconceptions that was widely spread by the media, frankly, which I was a part. We saw it coming out of the White House every day during the Reagan presidency, was that he was not sharp, that it was a scripted presidency, and he was a three by five index card actor in the whole thing.

In fact, there was a news magazine that put on the cover during his presidency, "The 9:00 to 5:00 President," that he wasn't actively engaged.

The fact is, and we've gotten a greater appreciation of this actually since he's left the White House, was that he was deeply engaged. And if it was a scripted presidency, he was writing a lot of the script.

I have here, Aaron, I brought in some of the things that I got from the Reagan Library when I was researching this documentary. This, and I'm going to turn this to the camera, and maybe you can get a picture of this. Doesn't look great because of the light, but it's a handwritten document. And there are hundreds of these that Ronald Reagan wrote before, and during, and even after he was in the White House.

This particular one is a long document, was a speech that he gave in opposition to the strategic arms limitation treaty, SALT II. It was during the Carter years. And in this document, Aaron, he argued for not just arms limitations, but arms reductions. One of the things that's not appreciated fully about the Reagan -- about Ronald Reagan, was that he was actually serious when he talked about reducing nuclear weapons. He was commonly seen as something of a cowboy, a warmonger even in the early days. And that masked -- he argued for strength, absolutely. And building up towards strength. But he really felt strongly about arming down.

BROWN: Let me try getting another question or two before the clock gets us here. Was there a noticeable difference in the president in the first term and the president in the second term?

SESNO: Well, yes, in the second term once the Iran-Contra scandal hit. The dealing with arms for hostages with the Iranians and then the transfer of funds to the Nicaraguan Contras, the anti- Communist Contras, that was revealed in 1986.

Ronald Reagan went into a deep depression over that. And it was a depression that has been talked about by a number of people who are close to him, driven principally by the fact that he somehow lost his connection with the American public. That hurt him deeply.

And he said -- he commented to several of his aides, why don't they trust me? Why don't they believe me about this? Because he felt that they were not negotiating for -- with terrorists, when in fact, they actually were trading arms for hostages. That was the toughest part for him.

BROWN: I hope over the course of the week, honestly, that we'll have a series of these conversations. I -- we've got lots of questions I want to pick your brain with. So come back over the course of the week, and we'll chat some -- OK?

SESNO: We'll do that, OK.

BROWN: Thank you. Our former colleague, Frank Sesno, who keeps himself very busy in Washington these days.

With a few exceptions, Ronald Reagan's return to private life was absolute, even allowing for his illness, friends say it was unlikely he would led the extroverted ex-presidency of a Harry Truman or even a Dwight Eisenhower, neither of whom were especially young when they left office.

Two careers in the public eye, it seemed, were quite enough. Here's our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ronald Reagan left office in 1989 on a series of high notes. He was more popular than when he began his term. The Cold War was apparently winding down, after more than 40 years of tensions. And with the election of George Herbert Walker Bush, the first sitting vice president to win a presidential election in more than 150 years, Reagan had in effect won his third term.

But he's also 78, the oldest president ever to leave office. Had survived an assassination attempt and cancer. So an activist ex- presidency just wasn't in the cards. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon.

LOU CANNON, REAGAN BIOGRAPHER: I don't know that Ronald Reagan ever really expected to be an ex-president. I don't know that that had crossed his mind.

GREENFIELD: Reagan wrote a book of memories. Critics called them remarkably unrevealing. And they attracted little attention. He traveled to Japan in 1989 for a series of speeches for which he was paid some $2 million.

CANNON: The trip to Japan was a mistake, I believe. And I think Reagan himself realized that. He was criticized for it. And I think the criticisms got to him. And he never repeated it.

GREENFIELD: He spent much of his time relaxing at his ranch near Santa Barbara, planning for his library and studiously avoiding any second guessing of his successor.

CANNON: He had chosen Bush as his vice president. He believed that he'd made the right choice. And sometimes some of his conservative friends would try, I think, to get him to just to dig Bush a little bit, you know, like he wasn't quite as good as you were. He never did that.

GREENFIELD: Reagan's last memorable public appearance was at the Republican convention in 1992.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This fellow they have nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well, let me tell you something, I knew Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: When he poked good natured fun at Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton and at himself.

REAGAN: He was a friend of mine. And governor, you're no Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: And he also sounded familiar notes of optimism, hopefulness.

REAGAN: May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural God given optimism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The real spirit of Ronald Reagan was this generous, generous combatant, which is one of the reasons people loved him so much.

GREENFIELD: Barely two years later, on November 5th, 1994, Reagan released an open letter to America, revealing that he had developed Alzheimer's Disease. He spent the last years of his life increasingly shut out from the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: And Aaron, what's really interesting about this is that Ronald Reagan was such a larger than life figure in his presidency. And now is such a larger than life figure as he enters history, probably the single most admired person within the Republican party possibly with the exception of Abe Lincoln, that those years after the presidency are going to stand as a kind of an odd footnote to his life and his career.

Possibly because of his age, possibly because it took time to understand just how critical a role Reagan played in redefining the Republican party and American conservatism -- Aaron?

BROWN: When you -- just when you heard the news today, and I assume that you'd been getting the same kind of reports that we had over the last day or so that was likely to happen soon, just what jumped into your mind? A specific day, a specific moment, anything?

GREENFIELD: It was the way in which Ronald Reagan grew in political terms. We're going to spend decades analyzing how effective a president he was, whether he had the right policies, what he did wrong.

But for a guy who began his real political life advocating on behalf of Barry Goldwater, at the high water mark of post war American liberalism, where the conservatives suffered one of the worst political defeats in their history, and then to move on, 16 years later to a landslide rejection of the Democratic president, a redefinition of the Republican party, and a redefinition of American politics to the point where a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was to declare some years later the era of big government is over, I -- it just struck me that, you know, we always talk about that there are no giants anymore. Well, whether you liked him or didn't like him, in pure political terms, in pure consequential terms, this was a giant.

BROWN: He was that. Jeff, thank you very much. Jeff's in South Carolina tonight.

We all talk about the era of big government being over. Government's plenty big. It's not shrinking at all, but it's just part of the way we see the politics of the time.

Ronald Reagan served as president for eight years. Most of that time, Candy Crowley was there in Washington, writing about it. A great deal of history was made. And today, of all days, it is of course time to look back.

Candy, good evening to you. It's nice to see you.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

We were -- I guess, you know, it's interesting to your question to Jeff, Aaron, talking about when you heard today, what did you think? And I think once we got beyond thinking for the family, as sad as this is, we had heard Nancy Reagan a couple of weeks ago say that he had reached a point where he had -- was beyond her reach. And so there must be some sense of relief there.

And then after that, what's interesting to me is that what Reagan said in his speech in 1992 at the convention that Jeff just referred to in that piece, was that I hoped that people will remember me as the person that appealed to your best hopes and not your worst fears.

He really wanted to be remembered as the guy with the smile and the optimist and the man who saw better days ahead every day he lived. And it's interesting to me that that's what we're hearing today from so many people at this -- after that four years of malaise and the Iranian hostage situation, that this big optimistic, and by that time Californian swept into Washington and sort of changed things in a way that only now we're just beginning to see.

BROWN: There were -- we will talk, I assume, over the next -- well, we'll talk ourselves crazy over the next week or so about a lot of this. But one of the things about the Reagan humor that I liked, because I liked this in people I guess, is that he could make jokes about himself. He could laugh at himself.

There was a wonderful moment in the Mondale debate, as I recall it, that he had not done well. The president had not done well in the first debate. It was generally thought that age had become an issue. And he turned to the camera. And no one played to a camera any better. And he basically as I'll mangle the line, but it was basically I won't make an issue of my opponent's inexperience, if he doesn't make an issue of my age.

CROWLEY: And the clip of that is great, because you see Walter Mondale just howling.

BROWN: Yes.

CROWLEY: You know, in the back. I mean, he even got him. I mean, he was good with the one liners. He really was.

BROWN: Did he like reporters?

CROWLEY: You know, he liked people. I don't if he sort of differentiated. And I never felt any -- certainly there are a lot of candidates I've covered that have felt -- you could kind of feel the hostility, at least for what you did as opposed to who you are.

But you know, we would have times -- there was a period after which -- during which they would call up and say hey, the president would like a group of you to come up and maybe have a cocktail and talk. And you'd sit around this group in one of the rooms in the White House.

What sort of always interested me was that he was really a gentleman's gentleman. He found it very hard, when we were all yelling at him to try to get him to answer a question, he found it very hard to turn away from a female reporter. It was -- not a new phenomenon, but a relatively new phenomenon. He was old school.

BROWN: Yes.

CROWLEY: And it was very -- he was so polite, he could turn away from the guys, but he had a very hard time not answering a woman's question.

And when we were in those private things, he always made sure, and it wasn't -- it was in a much more of an old school role. You know, he'd pat your hand. He was very tactile. And when he shook hands with you, he'd put one on the other. He was a very friendly person in an old school kind of way.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thank you. That's yet another advantage that you women have, as best I can tell. Thank you.

CROWLEY: Yes, well, we're still not even.

BROWN: Well, that may be so. One of us is still working late at night. Thank you, Candy. Candy Crowley.

We'll take a break here. We have much more ahead. We'll take a look at the view from overseas. Jill Dougherty's in Moscow. We'll check there. This will be a fascinating day, I think, and much more. We'll take a break as we remember Ronald Reagan from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Ronald Reagan may have worn the label "conservative," but in foreign policy, he was in many ways quite radical. Until he tried, presidents simply didn't tell their Soviet counterparts to tear down walls or talk about zero option for nuclear weapons.

It was a dance with its own strange etiquette. And Ronald Reagan simply wasn't having any of it, which made foreign policy in the Reagan years something to cover indeed.

CNN's Jill Dougherty and Robin Oakley did that. They've got stories to tell for it. And we're pleased to have them with us tonight. Jill in Russia and Robin in London.

Jill, let me start with you. Obviously, what Ronald Reagan put in motion and Mikhail Gorbachev put in motion, too, changed forever Russian life, Soviet life. How do you think this -- his passing will be seen there?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think, Aaron, you'd have to say number one, he was really the symbol of the Cold War. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE) defining rhetoric of the Cold War. Even here in Russia, people know the phrases, "the evil empire, "Star Wars."

And you have to go back to his famous speech at the Berlin Wall, where he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." So these things are very tied with the concept that people here have with their country.

Now if you were to look at it, on the one hand, the people who want here -- who wanted the Soviet Union to end, who did indeed think that it was an evil empire, they would remember Ronald Reagan very fondly for having played a major, major role in the end of the Soviet Union.

Others, who rued the end of the Soviet Union, might not be as kind. And then also, Aaron, you have to say that debate over the question of whether President Reagan's increase in the military budget and that arms race really did lead to the end of the Soviet Union. There are new theories coming out on that right now.

BROWN: I think it is always a little dangerous, and probably simplistic to say any one thing or any one person was responsible for in this case the end of the Cold War. It was a complicated set of facts. I just wonder if by and large, not people in the extremes, but people in the middle in Russia, don't want to take some credit on their own for the change, don't want to acknowledge the role of Gorbachev and what he did and later even Yeltsin, when it looked like things might really go south?

DOUGHERTY: Right. There are the people who would argue that let's say human rights people who would argue that they pushed and pushed and pushed, and that had an effect.

There's also the theory, which is quite interesting, about oil prices. You know, Russia is a huge -- always has been, a very, very big oil producer. And at that point, oil prices were crashing. And that had an effect.

But overall, people here, if you look at it economically, would have to say that the Soviet Union's economy was so impractical and could never sustain itself. And that ultimately, it just collapsed of its own weight.

But I think you'd have to say that many people here would agree that that arms race and the fight between the United States and the Soviet Union at that point, outspending the Soviet Union, was one of the key elements in pushing it over the edge.

BROWN: Let's go to Robin. Robin, in many ways, and not unlike George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan scared the Europeans to death.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he certainly did initially, Aaron. There was this image of him as a cowboy. I think the Europeans found it hard initially to take seriously somebody who'd spent part of his career as a Hollywood actor. That's not a common background for European politicians.

They saw him initially perhaps as something of a warmonger. They were disturbed by some of the strength of his Cold War rhetoric. But I think partly due to the chemistry that he developed with Margaret Thatcher, they gradually came to take him as a much more sophisticated politician.

She, after all, was the one who persuaded him that they could both do business with Mikhail Gorbachev, as she put it. And indeed, he began to do business with Mikhail Gorbachev to such an extent that she actually became alarmed when the two of them met in Reykiovic (ph). And she felt that President Reagan was, as it were, handing over the whole of the Western arms arsenal. And she had to dash off to Washington soon after that and reprimand Ronald Reagan for overdoing it, as she saw it.

And I think Europe gradually adjusted to him over a period. And European politicians were not impervious to the sheer charm of Ronald Reagan. He was, many of them found, a nice guy to meet.

BROWN: Well, yes. So sort of interpersonal relationships. Man now in between presidents who are successful have to have them, whether it's in domestic policy or international affairs.

Will it be an enormous story in London? Or will it just be front page coming up, and pretty much move on?

OAKLEY: It will be a big story for at least a day, I think, Aaron. Partly because, again, of that -- the memories that people have of the personal chemistry with Margaret Thatcher.

We have Thatcherism. You had Reaganomics. And the two of them were two politicians who saw the world in black and white, not in the intervening shades of gray. When she first met him as governor of California in -- back in '75, I think it was, she said she felt instinctively then that here was somebody who felt and thought as she did.

And they built on this together. And they shared all these instincts about less government, about lower taxes, about effective military spending and so on.

And this did build into probably one of the most effective and enduring political alliances of world leaders through the 1980s. But it was personal as well.

And Margaret Thatcher, when we saw her getting a little bit down back at home, she dashed across to the United States to see President Reagan and get a kind of recharging of her ideological batteries.

BROWN: Robin, good to see you. Jill, thank you in Russia, Jill Dougherty over there. Robin Oakley in London. Appreciate your work tonight. Thank you very much.

We'll take a break here. We have much more ahead. A two hour special edition of NEWSNIGHT on a Saturday night, as we honor former President Ronald Reagan, who died today in Southern California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Ronald Reagan was for years a card carrying Democrat. After switching parties, he went on to give the country a new conservative view of itself.

He enjoyed, enjoyed and enjoyed extraordinary popularity among Republicans and a fair number of Democrats, who became Reagan Republicans. Some many still are.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Santa Monica, California, where earlier today, hundreds of people gathered outside the funeral home where Mr. Reagan's body was taken.

Ted, good evening to you.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. And there are still dozens of people outside of this funeral home, milling around, watching really nothing, just looking at the funeral home. There's a small memorial that has started here with flags and flowers. And it's difficult to see, but in the back of it, and very poignantly, is a cowboy hat that was placed here earlier this afternoon. People have been coming here to pay their respects.

You mentioned the party affiliations. We've been talking to people who say they are both Republican and Democrat. All of them felt the need to come out here and pay their respects on this day, this history making day.

According to the Reagan aides, and there are a number of them still here at the funeral home, they've been here throughout the day, they say they'll make an announcement tomorrow at noon here in Santa Monica as to the particular schedule of events.

Of course, they have been pretty much laid out in terms of what will happen to the remains. Of course, first to Simi Valley for a day and then on to Washington, D.C., where the funeral will take place. And the former president's remains will lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

But that specific schedule should be laid out tomorrow morning and announced at noon here at Santa Monica. Of course, the family will have the final say as to when that clock, if you will, starts ticking and all of these things happen. Until the -- through the weekend, it is expected that the president's remains will remain here and be prepared in Santa Monica.

Tonight, though, a lot of people just coming out, people that happen to live in this neighborhood, to pay their respects to the former president -- Aaron?

BROWN: Just very, very quickly, OK, when people come by, are they in tears or because in some respects, obviously a man passed that's sad, or are they just there to pay respects?

ROWLANDS: I think it's -- they're here to respects. And you know, the people are thinking back, taking away the last 10 years, when of course, he publicly fought Alzheimer's. People are remembering Ronald Reagan. Everybody formulates a relationship, if you will, with their president. And depending on the age of the individual, people are reflecting and they're talking about it amongst themselves and to members of the media.

BROWN: Ted, thanks a lot. Ted Rowlands in Santa Monica tonight, getting a little more detail on the sequence of events.

And the key to me, in all of this, is sometime tomorrow afternoon, about 3:00 Eastern time, if not before, if it leaks out, we'll have a pretty fair idea of when the official funeral series of events will begin in -- first in California, then in Washington. And ultimately, back in California, where Mr. Reagan will be buried.

Frank Donatelli has been good enough to stay up late with us. He's in Washington. He worked for both Ronald Reagan campaigns, the Reagan White House, and from '87 through '89, he's now the chairman of the Reagan Ranch board of directors. So he goes way back with the former president.

It's nice to see you.

FRANK DONATELLI, FMR. POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR RONALD REAGAN: Thank you.

BROWN: At the risk at seeming indelicate, I hope this isn't, is a day like this in some way a day of mixed feelings? Is there some sense of relief for his family that this very difficult period has finally ended?

DONATELLI: Yes, absolutely. There isn't any question about that. There's tremendous sadness on the one hand, because we feel like we've all lost a great leader. On the other hand, the last several years could not have been easy for his family. So this is a blessing, I think, for the president and for his family.

BROWN: I'm not sure there's -- honestly, Frank, there's a question in this, but let me just throw out an idea and see what you have to say. One of the things that I will always admire about the Reagans, and in particular Nancy Reagan, is the public way that she addressed this terrible illness, an illness that many families didn't want to talk about, wanted -- were ashamed that it existed in their family, and how she changed our consciousness about it, and through him as well.

DONATELLI: Well, I think that's a very good observation. I think one of the reasons that President Reagan decided to go public with his illness was that he wanted to tell people, and families that were in this same circumstance, that by being strong and by being courageous, you can get through it. And if that's the message that he meant to convey 10 years ago when he first told us about this, I think he was very, very successful.

BROWN: If there was one thing about him, one moment with him to share with viewers tonight, what would it be?

DONATELLI: Oh, my, there would be so many things. Well, I'll just pick something I guess at the end of his administration. When in the last year of his presidency, I would fly with him from the White House on Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base on the helicopter. And I would notice that inevitably, he would be looking down at some of the homes that we would fly over in Prince George's County, Maryland.

And I said to him once, I said, "Mr. President, what do you see down there?" And he said, "Look at that, look at that, look at those homes. They're beautiful homes and they're owned by working people. I've got show Gorbachev how much freedom works in America and how American working men and women can make a better life for themselves. There's no reason why they can't do that in his country also."

And I'm told that the next several months after that, when Gorbachev did come to the United States, he took him on that same helicopter ride.

BROWN: That is a great story. It's nice to talk to you. Thanks for joining us tonight.

DONATELLI: Thank you.

BROWN: Very, very much. We appreciate it.

George Schultz worked for Ronald Reagan during the presidency. I remember I think -- and in fact I think I know even remember the event. I think George W. Bush was speaking at the Reagan Library. And I believe Mr. Schultz was there. And Mr. Schultz is on the phone with us now.

Good evening to you, sir. Your thoughts tonight? Well, it was a pretty good wind-up, but apparently not a very good pitch. Are we going to get him back or not? OK, we're not.

Tell me where you want to go then and we'll -- OK. Let's take a break. We'll sort out the phone line issues and all the rest. And we'll be right back. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The nation's capitol on this Saturday night in June. Flags flying at half staff. It's been a gray day in Washington, as the nation mourns its 40th president, the passing of Ronald Wilson Reagan. President Reagan died in his California home about 1:00 in the afternoon Pacific coast time.

But the last 10 years, as of course he know, he has battled Alzheimer's Disease. In the end, it was infection, as is often the case that claimed his life. His body will come to Washington some time this week, where the nation will officially mourn his passing.

And then, the former president will go back home to California, his adopted home in California, where he will be laid to rest. Ronald Reagan died today. He was 93.

Robert Dallek is with us tonight. He is a noted historian of presidents. And we're always pleased to talk to him. There were -- well, let me ask it as a question rather than an assertion. It has always seemed to me that there were two Reagan presidencies, the firs term different from the second.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes.

BROWN: Does it seem that way to you?

DALLEK: Yes, I think Aaron, the first term was a case of him learning the ropes, so to speak. But it was very much focused on the domestic side and the tax cuts and dealing with the economy.

And the second term, of course, was much more a foreign policy presidency, when he gave up on the rhetoric about the evil empire and saw an opportunity to deal with Gorbachev, and move the Soviet Union toward the collapse of Communism. And it was a very different second presidency from the first.

BROWN: And then in the end of the second term, some of the shine had gone off, hadn't it?

DALLEK: Yes without question because the Iran-Contra affair sort of blighted his presidency at the end. And it left a certain question mark about his legacy.

But nevertheless, he did end on a very high note in terms of his personal popularity. But you know, historians are going to wrestle with these issues, 15, 20, 30, 40 years down the road. And he will be certainly remembered as a very significant president.

And I think most particularly, the fact that he came to the White House in 1981. The country was in a pretty sour mood about the presidency. You had Nixon's imperial presidency. You had the failure in Vietnam. Watergate. Ford and Carter had not done terribly well.

And so Reagan restored a sense of hope, a sense of kind of uplift about the presidency. Now it's ironic, because he preached the idea that government was not the solution, government was the problem. And yet, when he left the White House, he had kind of rekindled kind of affection for the presidency. And so, it was, I think, pretty nice irony.

BROWN: Well, I don't think he meant that kind of government. I don't think that's what he was thinking about. I think he was thinking about all those programs. Was he adaptable?

DALLEK: Well, he was adaptable. He was very adaptable. You know, as governor of California, he proved himself adaptable, because of example, he said his feet were in concrete on the issue of withholding tax. And then he signed a withholding tax law into law.

But I think in this presidency on Communism, on dealing with the Soviet Union, there you saw great adaptability on his part because it was like two different administrations, the one that started out with the evil empire discussion, and then the second administration, which was really for summit conferences and almost a friendship that developed between him and Gorbachev.

BROWN: Who had his ear? Who did he -- whose advise did he most value?

DALLEK: Well, you know, I think in a way, he was in that sense, his own man. He had a strong sense of purpose. He had strong views about Communism, about the economy, about government. And he really stuck to his ideas in that sense.

So you see, the broad ideas he held to, but to implement them, he was much more practical, much more pragmatic.

BROWN: Let me ask one or two other things. It has always seemed to me that there was, as genial as he was and in some ways as is out there as he could be, he always held something back in his hip pocket about himself.

DALLEK: Yes.

BROWN: He was difficult for biographers and historians in many respects, it seems to me, to capture. Do you agree with that?

DALLEK: I do. And I think this will be one of the puzzles for biographers in the future. You know, Edmund Morris struggled, I think, to come to terms with what the man as a personality, as an individual was about. Because on the one hand, he was very genial, someone who was so likable, and of course described as the great communicator, but he was a very private person. And as you say, was sort of held back from a kind of openness with people.

And I don't know that a lot of his advisers felt as if they had a very close personal relationship with him.

BROWN: That's interesting. Bob, it's very nice to see you. We appreciate...

DALLEK: Good to see you.

BROWN: ...staying up late with us on a Saturday night.

DALLEK: Sure.

BROWN: Thank you. Bob Dallek, the noted historian and presidential biographer, who's works are quite wonderful to read.

We have much more ahead on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT. Bill Schneider joins us to talk about the Reagan impact on politics, especially American conservative politics.

But there's much more, too, to note on a day when America loses one of its former presidents. Break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What Ronald Reagan meant to the country is something for historians to talk about and historians will talk about it. What he meant to his party, the Republican party, and to the conservative movement is something for CNN's Bill Schneider to talk about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The thing to remember about Ronald Reagan is this. He wasn't just the legend to the country. He was also a hero to a political movement.

ROBERT DALLEK, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Reagan is really the icon of the conservative movement. Without him, I think the conservatives would feel -- they've sort of lost their leader. They've lost their heroic figure.

SCHNEIDER: Reagan rallied conservatives.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

SCHNEIDER: In 1988, he helped rally conservatives to George W. Bush's father.

REAGAN: George, just one personal request, go out there and win one for the Gipper.

SCHNEIDER: Fifteen years later, Reagan still rallied conservatives. Last fall, CBS scheduled a mini-series, "The Reagans," that included unflattering portrayals of the former president and First Lady.

Michael Paranzino started a Web site, boycottcbs.com.

MICHAEL PARANZINO, FOUNDER, BOYCOTTCBS.COM: We're taking out eyeballs elsewhere. And we're taking our wallets and our pocketbooks elsewhere.

SCHNEIDER: CBS moved the mini-series to a cable network after conservatives rallied to defend their ailing hero.

When George W. Bush needed to rally conservatives behind his campaign, there was no more potent symbol than Ronald Reagan.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ronald Reagan's leadership revived America's economy, renewed America's strength and lifted America's confidence.

And that spirit of optimism and faith in fundamental American values is the spirit we will carry to victory in November of 2004.

SCHNEIDER: Reagan's death will be marked by elaborate memorials and occasions for the nation to mourn.

NANCY REAGAN, RONALD REAGAN'S WIFE: Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him.

SCHNEIDER: It will put the presidential campaign on hold for some time. Conservatives may feel a call to arms to win one more for the Gipper. But these things can backfire. In 2002, Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash in Minnesota 11 days before election day. Wellstone was a hero to the left.

Many voters were put off when Wellstone supporters turned his memorial service into what looked like a political rally.

RICK KAHN, FRIEND, SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE: We are begging you to help us win this Senate election for Paul Wellstone.

SCHNEIDER: In the end, the seat was lost to the Republicans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: Reagan's legacy belongs to the entire country. It could be a serious political mistake if conservatives try to appropriate it for political purposes -- Aaron.

AARON BROWN, HOST: It's just a small thing, but it's actually quite interesting to note how powerful he is within the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to the point where you now fly into Reagan National Airport in Washington, and there was -- I think even Mrs. Reagan found it quite unseemly, this attempt to replace the "R" on the quarter, I guess it would be.

But he owned their hearts.

SCHNEIDER: He certainly did. I mean, to conservatives, 1980 is the year one. Nothing of importance happened before 1980, before Ronald Reagan.

And the whole conservative movement and even those Republicans who aren't part of it, all of them came from Ronald Reagan. Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, John McCain. They were all, in some way or another, Reaganites. They all came from under Reagan's umbrella.

So the whole Republican Party traces its lineage, its legitimacy to this one man.

BROWN: Bill, thank you. Good to have you with us on a Saturday night as well. An important one. Bill Schneider, with us from Washington tonight.

We note the passing today of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. We'll take a break and CNN's special coverage and this special edition of NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we're back late on a Saturday night to mark the passing of the 40th president of the United States.

Ronald Wilson Reagan died this afternoon at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. Mr. Reagan was 93. He'd been well for some days or weeks. We don't know all the details of this, though we do know in recent days -- let's leave it at that -- his health, his physical health took a bad turn.

He had been suffering from Alzheimer's' for more than a decade.

In many ways, Mr. Reagan lived several lives. There was this life, the life in Washington where flags fly tonight at half staff, where the nation will publicly mourn the president over the course of the next week until his body is flown, eventually, back to California.

He was a deeply private man in many respects, and as we talked about in the last hour, in some respects we didn't know him all that well. Over the next hour, we'll talk about what we do know and understand, the public side, what was and what's to come with the remembrances over the next several days.

Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House tonight, and it is late. Suzanne, good evening to you. Are you able to get much detail yet?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in terms of the schedule, we don't have the details of that, but we do know how the day unfolded.

The flag flies at half staff here, of course, at the White House, as they do at all federal installations. That is by order of the president.

We know that the president's aides found out early in the day. They got a heads up that Reagan's health had taken a turn for the worst. The president was notified of Mr. Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 Eastern Standard Time, shortly after 10 p.m. Paris time, in the evening.

President Bush has met with French President Jacques Chirac earlier in the day. He is there, of course, in France for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day, remembrances in Normandy.

And we understand it happened this way. It was Reagan's former chief of staff, Fred Ryan who had called White House chief of staff Andy Card.

Card immediately went to Mr. Bush to wake him of the news. We are told that the president's first words upon hearing of the news, he said, "It's a sad day for America."

Now Mr. Bush called former first lady Nancy Reagan shortly after midnight, Paris time, to offer the country's prayers and condolences. Shortly afterwards, from the hallway of the residence of the U.S. embassy in Paris, he delivered these remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility and the humor that comes with wisdom.

He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now Aaron, we are just moments away. The president is actually going to be waking up and he's going to be participating on Sunday in the events in Normandy, France, the 60th anniversary of D- Day.

And that is where, of course, he is going to be meeting with other world leaders. We expect that he will make additional remarks in honor of President Ronald Reagan.

Of course, he will also come back here. He will be traveling to Sea Island, Georgia, to host the G-8 summit. Again, with many leaders from around the globe gathering at that time, there is still uncertainty in terms of when the schedule -- they are waiting for that schedule from the Reagan family to determine just when the Memorial Day service is going to be. But of course, the president participating that as well.

BROWN: The G-8 summit is scheduled to begin what day?

MALVEAUX: On Tuesday.

BROWN: OK. And that includes many of the people who would come to the country for a state funeral in any case,

So without knowing for certain that it would get assumed that through the course of mid-week and beyond, the official events in Washington will probably pay oat.

MALVEAUX: Well, that's certainly right, Aaron. That's the sense that we're getting here, as well. In fact, all of those world leaders are here. In all likelihood. You are going to see those commemorations, those memorials, begin.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you very much -- Suzanne Malveaux.,

Ronald Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president of the United States. For many years, he was the oldest living former president.

The last chapter of his life was not an easy one, not for him and certainly not for his family. But what came before was quite remarkable.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

R. REAGAN: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The guy could deliver a line. An actor by trade, a communicator by nature.

R. REAGAN: We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning, as though prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye. And slipped the solar bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.

CROWLEY: Born in Illinois February 6, 1911, Ronald Reagan started out in radio in Iowa, made it to Hollywood, married two leading ladies, became a father of four, and then took on a new role: politician.

He was elected governor of California, ran for president and stole a line from the movies.

R. REAGAN: I am paying for this microphone, Mister...

CROWLEY: He won, at age 69 the oldest man ever elected to the White House.

R. REAGAN: That I will faithfully execute the office of president for the United States.

CROWLEY: Reagan nearly died in an assassination attempt, but a quick recovery cemented his image as a tough guy on a mission.

There were critics of huge deficits and painful spending cuts. And there were controversies: Iran-Contra, an arms sale deal with Iran to fund so-called freedom fighters in Nicaragua.

R. REAGAN: As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities.

CROWLEY: He had a deceptively simple agenda.

R. REAGAN: Our government is too big, and it spends too much.

CROWLEY: Lower taxes, smaller government, a stronger military.

R. REAGAN: The American uniform is once again worn with pride.

CROWLEY: Above all, an end to communism.

R. REAGAN: For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.

CROWLEY: Never one for inside the Beltway, he loved his place in the mountains above Santa Barbara, Rancho del Cielo, and entertained royalty there. And they returned the favor on their turf.

His eyesight was too poor to serve in combat, but his was the greatest generation, and he remembered them often, most memorably at Normandy, on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.

R. REAGAN: What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here?

We look at you, and somehow we know the answer: it was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love. CROWLEY: He served for eight years of history and then returned home to California. Bidding his party farewell four years later, the Great Communicator wrote his own epitaph.

REAGAN: And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: And at least in the first draft of his legacy, he is being remembered that way. Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said, "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile."

And on a live broadcast this morning, Garrison Keillor said that Reagan for years befuddled, quote, "us old liberals, mainly with his great shining charm which never, ever failed him" -- Aaron.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. Candy Crowley in Washington.

I just have this feeling that Mr. Reagan would be -- probably was appalled by the personal nature of politics these days, how nasty it often is, too often is, in our view. That was not his way, not his style. He was of another time and another school, for which the country, whether you agreed with him or not, was better off.

He was -- perhaps this is why -- a Midwestern boy. He came from humble roots; he grew up to be president. A storybook tale.

He was born in a second floor apartment. His father sold shoes. Those who knew young Ronald Reagan would say later that the boy remembered, never less the man.

More on that from CNN's Jonathan Freed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As president, Ronald Reagan would be dubbed the Great Communicator for his ability to explain complex issues in simple terms.

R. REAGAN: And it took 300 people in my Office of Management and Budget just to read the bill so the government wouldn't shut down.

FREED: But, from the time of his youth here in Illinois, they simply dubbed him Dutch.

He was born in 1911 to parents Jack and Nell in the town of Tampico. The Reagans settled in Dixon when Dutch was 9 years old.

R. REAGAN: We were a family that could only be described as poor in a financial way and material way. And yet, we had a very happy life, the four of us.

FREED: Ronald Reagan spent hours at the Dixon Library and at the First Christian Church.

He played football, performed in school plays, and yes, he was president of the student council.

Some of his strongest hometown memories, though, flow from the river.

HELEN LAWTON, REAGAN FAMILY FRIEND: I can still see the doc out here with Dutch walking up and down the docks, with his swimming suit on that said "Life Guard," with a whistle around his neck.

FREED: Stories that made him smile decades later.

LAWTON: One man dove in and lost his false teeth, and he wanted them back very badly. And he asked Dutch if he would please dive in and find them. And after several dives, he found them.

FREED: In 1928, Ronald Reagan headed to Eureka College, just 60 miles south or Dixon. He played on the Golden Tornado football team and was captain and then coach of the swim team. He kept up the acting and was president of the student senate.

He lived on the third floor or the TKE fraternity house and made money washing dishes with Elmer Fisher, who like many of the president's contemporaries, has also passed away.

ELMER FISHER, FRIEND OF RONALD REAGAN: I know he's a good dish washer, because I worked with him. He did a good job.

FREED: The Ronald Reagan exhibit at Eureka showcases his degree in economics and sociology, an old college essay, his yearbook, and even a certificate from the Red Cross that he received for saving a child from drowning while he was governor of California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome home, Dutch.

FREED: In 1990, Mr. Reagan returned to Dixon for the last time, drawn again to the river.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You really pulled seven people out of here?

R. REAGAN: Yes. Supposed to be the log. I used to cut a notch in a log for every one of them.

FREED: And he toured the restored home where he grew up.

R. REAGAN: Looks pretty much like it always did.

FREED: The friends of his younger years consider it remarkable that the man who would be president never stopped being the regular guy they knew and loved.

WILFRED "TUBBY" MILLER, REAGAN COLLEGE FRIEND: He was just one of us. That's another reason why he was a bigger surprise to us, probably, then the people that didn't know him to see how well he's done (ph). FREED: And if a measure of a person's worth on Earth is how they think of you after you're gone, some of those who knew Ronald Reagan take his measure by the way his personality, they say, raised the spirits of a nation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREED: Aaron, people say that Ronald Reagan had a way, a grandfatherly way, of calling the nation to his knee, patting it reassuringly on the head, and telling it that everything was going to be all right.

Well, when the future president was little more than knee high, he moved into the home behind me. Now, we've been talking to the good people of Dixon, Illinois, and many of them are saying that they were, in many ways, mentally prepared for what was going to happen today. The man was 93 years old. It was know for awhile that he hasn't been well.

But more than a few have told us that even though they knew that this was coming, that they knew that this day was not that far off, it was still like being confronted by a parent's death. And that say that no matter how much you can try to prepare for that in advance, when you're actually facing it, it's still very difficult to take -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jonathan, thank you. Jonathan Freed, Dixon, Illinois, tonight.

Robert Novak needs no introduction to our viewers, certainly. And he joins us, I assume, from Washington. There you are.

I asked Bob Dart (ph) this question earlier. Who are the people that politically influenced him? Who -- who did he listen to? Who had his ear?

ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": I don't believe that he was greatly influenced by anybody, except, I think, Nancy Reagan influenced him, really, on smaller things, rather than larger things.

One of the misconceptions about Reagan is that he was a kind of a slow-witted fellow. He was an intellectual. He was -- he read the -- the economic texts of Baustioff (ph), Steel and Compton in Britain.

He was greatly -- he was a great reader. And I think he was influenced in no small part by the past and particularly on economics, a desire to return to the past.

I don't believe there was anybody who controlled him or had his ear. I don't think there was a Colonel House (ph), as there was with -- with Woodrow Wilson. Or even some of the very close aids of Richard Nixon and H.R.Haldeman.

I think he was a -- he was a very, in many ways a solitary figure who learned much of what he -- he ventured into in politics through very extensive reading, which goes against the -- the conventional wisdom.

BROWN: It certainly does. You mentioned Mrs. Reagan and her influence on matters small. And some of them, obviously, had to do with image and other things. But she was an enormously important barometer for him about how things were going.

NOVAK: I think so. I think ideologically I always had the idea that Nancy Reagan was a little bit more liberal than -- than Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a very, very conservative fellow.

Naturally, through this long, dark Alzheimer's, there's been a softening of the image. And when anybody dies, nobody wants to be ideological, but a lot of people who didn't care for him much in life are saying that he was a conscientious -- he was a compassionate conservative or even -- I even heard the word "liberal" mentioned.

But he was quite conservative. And I thought he was more conservative than Nancy was.

BROWN: You think he was more conservative than George W. Bush is?

NOVAK: I don't think there's any question about that. I think -- I think he was -- I don't think he did all the conservative things he wanted to do, such as the gold standard, and I think he would have wanted to do that.

I don't think he -- he cut down governments in the size that he wanted it to. Of course, he was a practical man. He was -- he did what he could. And he did much more than any president in my lifetime did.

But I think he is -- is really intuitively and instinctively quite more conservative either of the Bushes and couldn't -- the present Bush is more conservative than his father was

BROWN: Was his election in 1980, and maybe even in some respects the failed campaign in '76, the knife in the heart of the moderate wing of the Republican Party?

NOVAK: I think it was part of a massive realignment, Aaron, that was arrested in part by Watergate and the disgrace of Richard Nixon and Nixon's fall from power.

A realignment of the South going into the Republican Party becoming more conservative. The Eastern seaboard and New England going to the Democratic Party.

I think in the midst of this realignment, which may be nearing its end right now. Ronald Reagan came along and was acceptable to so many so-called Reagan Democrats, blue collar Democrats who are quite conservative, but they couldn't ever quite swallow Richard Nixon. But they took to -- to Reagan quite naturally.

But this -- the Republican Party was becoming a more inhospitable party for the -- for the liberals. When Reagan came in, and I believe he accelerated the process.

And you mentioned the 1976 campaign, which was extraordinarily important. Because everybody in the party wanted Reagan to drop out after...

BROWN: Yes.

NOVAK: ... President Ford defeated him in New Hampshire and Illinois. And they said, "You're just wasting your time." And he stayed in, and he won the North Carolina primary.

If he had not stayed in and won North Carolina, Texas, California, several other states, he never -- he would have been considered an absolute has-been and a failure. He never would have been nominated in 1980.

BROWN: And just -- just briefly here -- I hope this isn't inappropriate to throw in on this sort of day, but that campaign, the '76 campaign, created some bad feelings between former President Ford and -- and Mr. Reagan.

NOVAK: Well, it did. And of course, we don't want to get into -- we don't have the time for the detail, but there was almost a terrible thing that happened at the convention in Detroit, where Ronald Reagan came to the very edge of signing off on a co-presidency to make Gerry Ford the vice president, where they would be co- presidents.

Really, anti-constitutional, unconstitutional. And his better judgment prevailed.

I think Ronald Reagan had very good judgment, and he really saw that this was not in the -- in the American way of things. And he stopped from making a terrible mistake and instead picked the senior George Bush as his vice president.

BROWN: Well, I want all the detail on that story. I'll see you in Washington tomorrow. Mr. Novak, thank you sir. Bob Novak with us tonight.

We'll take a break. We have much more on an important life in American life as flags fly at half staff. That's Simi Valley, California, where the Reagan Library is. And we'll visit that and much more as we continue on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As with all presidents, Ronald Reagan has a presidential library. It is in the rolling hills, just a bit north and a bit east of Los Angeles in the town of Simi Valley. It is also where he will finally be laid to rest by the end of next week sometime, we presume.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is there for us tonight, and I suspect she is not alone. Good evening to you. THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is absolutely right, Aaron -- I am not alone. In fact, many members of the media are here right now.

Now, this library is also the largest presidential library. The flags here are flying at half staff and the library was open all day today, just about until the moment that the -- we heard news that the president had died. After that, it closed, but it certainly did not keep mourners away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): It was a spontaneous moment: mourners listening to "Amazing Grace" through a car stereo.

At the entrance to the library, dozens of people gathered throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Some were visibly moved and emotional as they placed cards, flags and flowers, even a jar of jellybeans at the entrance to the Reagan Library.

This is a library that normally has 400 visitors a day. It houses 50 million pages of records and documents which cover his days as governor of California from 1966 to 1970 and his two terms as president, as well as a piece of the Berlin Wall that is out here and Air Force one, which flew the president more than 600,000 miles.

Now Aaron, one gift shop owner told me earlier today the phones were ringing off the hook. She says that people were just calling in and wanting to give their condolences -- Aaron.

Thelma, thank you. It's a very sweet thing in -- that people do in moments like this, they just want to be a part of the moment. And it's nice to see. Thank you for your work today.

BROWN: As a Hollywood actor, Ronald Reagan was a staunch union member who was the president of the Acreen Actors' Guild.

He once said of his early political philosophy, "I was a near hopeless hemophiliac liberal. I bled for causes. I voted Democratic, following my father in every election. I was blindly (ph) and visually joining...

Every organization I could find that would guarantee to save the world. He said that once.

Later, he would come to believe that big government was the real evil, from which people needed saving.

Regardless of his political affiliation, Mr. Reagan's ability to make people feel he was on their side won him much admiration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a very sad day for our country. Though Ronald Reagan has been ill for long time the finality of all of this is going to his the American people very hard.

And Barbara and I mourn the loss of a great president and for us a great friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think despite what many people would say, that he -- he had the fortitude to face down the -- the Russian empire and was a believer in the American system. So I don't think it would be his legacy.

BOB DOLE, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just a great guy, and did a lot for this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had a great personality, and I know he was very communicative, and he was very open, and he was great with people, and that's what counts.

GOV. BOB TAFT: He connected with people in a remarkable way. It was exceptional. I think that was so much a part of his leadership. His ability to communicate his belief and love for America, his vision, for prosperity, his vision for a strong America and the world. And that really restored our self-confidence, and inspired us, I think all to greater things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He presided over a period of great prosperity and stability. And probably the last bit of stability we will ever -- we have experienced in this country.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Ronald America won America's respect with his greatness. And won it's love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction. The strength that comes with character. The grace that comes with humility. And the humor that comes with wisdom. He leaves behind a nation he restored, and a world he helped save.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have such a profound respect for him not only as a president, but as a person. He and Nancy I think they were an example as a married couple. You know, their love and support, and the mutual respect they had for one another was an inspiration to all of us.

RUDY GIULIANI, FMR MAYOR OF NEW YORK: The man loved people. And he had this great strength of conviction. And as a result of that, he was able to change America and the world in the direction of his convictions, rather than being one of these politicians who you know, reads public opinion polls, and shifts and changes. Ronald Reagan was Ronald Reagan. And he knew what he believed, and he was a able to change the world as a result of that.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: Rudy Giuliani on Ronald Reagan, the former Mayor was out at the track today hoping to see a triple crown that didn't happen. When we come back, Jeff Greenfield on the humor of the 40th president. That's Santa Monica, California tonight, out by the ocean in southern California. Flags and flowers and notes there remembering the president and his family on this sad day. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Someone once said that President Dwight Eisenhower's to- political philosophy was his smile. President Reagan's philosophy on the other hand was very well defined whether you liked it or not. But with political friend and foe alike, that smile didn't hurt either. Here again, Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): 1980, The Al Smith dinner in New York. Ronald Reagan's age is an issue that overhangs the presidential campaign. President Carter Reagan says called him with a question.

RONALD REAGAN, FMR. PRESIDENT UNITES STATES: Ronald, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) how come you look younger everyday when I see your new picture of you riding horseback? And I said well Jimmy, that's easy. I just keep riding older horses.

GREENFIELD: So much for the age issue. But in 1984, Reagan stumbles badly in his first debate with Walter Mondale.

REAGAN: But I also believe something else about that. I believe that -- and when I became governor of California, I started out.

GREENFIELD: And whispers about his age are getting louder. Then in the second debate, Reagan says...

REAGAN: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience.

GREENFIELD: So much for the age issue. Two years later, President Reagan confronts another issue. Is he lazy?

REAGAN: I don't know about you, but I've been working long hours. I've really been burning the midday oil.

GREENFIELD: All through his public life, Reagan demonstrated as skillful a use of humor as any political figure. Reporter Lou Cannon, who chronicled Reagan throughout his political career, says it was far more than simply a pleasant personality trait.

LOU CANNON: I think Reagan's humor was the key to his political success.

REAGAN: I'm so desperate for attention I almost considered holding a news conference.

CANNON: Reagan knew that if you make fun of yourself, that you establish a bond with people. He did it all the time.

GREENFIELD: He knew by instinct, or by experience, that if you joke about a presumed week spot, people relax about it. If it doesn't bother me the joke says, it shouldn't bother you.

REAGAN: Preparing me for a press conference was like reinventing the wheel. It's not true. I was around when the wheel was invented, and it was easier.

GREENFIELD: Thus, Reagan's acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican Convention began by noting his first career.

REAGAN: For the first thrill tonight was to find myself for the first time in a long time in a movie on Prime Time.

GREENFIELD: But Reagan's humor was also a tool he used to defang opponents. Some of whom saw Reagan as a dangerous extremist. Long time Reagan aid, Mike Deaver.

MIKE DEAVER: In some instances probably, that's what people had thought before they came into the room, id they believed everything they had read about him. So he did use humor to sort of soften his own image.

GREENFIELD: And long time political adversaries like Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder agree.

PAT SCHROEDER, FMR. CONGRESSWOMAN: He had kind of this little (UNINTELLIGIBLE), this little twinkle that worked when he was dealing with people. So the folks that come in very angry about something, but they would kind of melt down. I wish he had more substance. He couldn't have had more grace. And humor is a wonderful way to have grace, and take the edge off life, which a lot of people need to do today.

GREENFIELD: His humor was a gift on display at the most serious of moments. When he was shot in 1981, he was quoted as saying to the doctors "I hope you're all Republicans."

DEAVER: That was the beginning of the real change in people's perceptions about Reagan.

GREENFIELD: That says Michael Deaver, was grace under fire.

REAGAN: I heard those speakers at that other convention saying we won the Cold War. And I couldn't help wondering just who exactly do they mean by we?

GREENFIELD: And his humor was there in one of his last public appearances. At the 1992 Republican Convention where he mocked both Bill Clinton, and himself.\

REAGAN: This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well, let me tell you something. I knew Thomas Jefferson.

GREENFIELD: In politics, humor is like nitroglycerin. Powerful, but dangerous. In the wrong hands, attempts of humor have ended political careers. In the hands of a master like Ronald Reagan, there is no better tool. Jeff Greenfield, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: For years, Jeane Kirkpatrick was one of Ronald Reagan's most fervent supporters. She ultimately served him as the American Ambassador to the United Nations. But she was much much more than that. We're happy to say that Ambassador Kirkpatrick is joining us tonight. It's nice to see you.

The President had, not a simplistic, but in some respects a very simple view that if we could spread free markets, we could spread freedom and prosperity. Fair enough?

JEANE KIRKPATRICK, FMR AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: I think that's fair.

BROWN: And it was almost a religion to him.

KIRKPATRICK: Well he believed that free markets were very important.

BROWN: How did that play out in his foreign policy? It's one thing to believe it, it's another thing to try and sell it.

KIRKPATRICK: Well I had the experience at the United Nations early on of being confronted with the need -- the instruction really -- to present the United States principle speech at something called the Echosoc (ph) conference. That's economic and social council. At which he was meeting leaders of the -- world leaders. The whole. To discuss the question of development.

The issue was how can the developed countries most effectively help the least developed countries to make their way to greater affluence. And he felt -- he understood the problem. And the problem was that the most developed countries had -- he felt all been taking the free market road to development. But nobody knew it.

And he wanted very much early in his presidency to explain at every opportunity, and have members of his cabinet explain at every opportunity how the free market road to development got countries to development. And how that is you know -- the that rather than north south schemes is what the world ought to be paying attention to at that stage.

BROWN: A couple other areas if I may? How did he see -- did he see a difference between the Russians and the Chinese? Did he feel that one was a more solvable problem if you will, than the other?

KIRKPATRICK: I don't think I know the answer to that. I was -- had many conversations with President Reagan about the Soviet Union frankly. And not just about the Russians, about the Soviet Union. He thought of them as Soviet Communists. Rather than Russians you know?

And he was very much aware of the spread of Soviet Communism to the world. China was one piece of that. But I did not have a sense that he conceived China as an independent problem.

BROWN: Madam Ambassador, it was nice to talk to you tonight. Thank you. It's an important night, and your words are helpful in understanding the man who passed away today, thank you.

We're joined now from San Francisco by Kiron Skinner, one of the editors of what truly is one of the more fascinating political books, if that's the right way to put it. "Reagan in His Own Hand," which examines several hundred radio commentaries Mr. Reagan wrote out in long-hand, and delivered between 1975 and 1979. Miss Skinner is also a professor of history and political science at Carnegie Melon University. And so we're glad to see her with us tonight. Welcome.

Do you see when you look at his writing in that period of his life, before he becomes president, but when he is very active politically. Is there an evolution, or is it in stone?

KIRON SKINNER, CARNEGIE MELON UNIVERSITY: I think there's a political evolution between 1975 and 1979. When he steps down as governor of California in early 1975, January, he immediately begins a radio broadcast that is on more than 300 radio stations. A newspaper column. He gives about 10 speeches a month.

And you see his ideas and his themes becoming increasingly more sophisticated over time. His understanding of the Cold War, of the Soviet Union, of U.S. grand strategy, of the economic challenges. He becomes increasingly more sophisticated, and thoughtful, and elegantly reductionist over those years.

BROWN: Help me understand the last sentence.

SKINNER: You said in your conversation with Ambassador Kirkpatrick that Reagan had a couple of simple ideas. I think that about the Cold War, about markets and so forth.

BROWN: Yes.

SKINNER: I think Reagan did have some quote/unquote, simple ideas, but they were derived from hard work and study. And what our books, my co-edited books with Martin and Anaulee Sanderson (ph) of Stanford show Reagan was working out in great detail reading and writing to come up with the very quote/unquote simple hypothesis that guided him.

He had four about the Cold War, and they seemed like heresy at the time. And they might have seemed simple, but in detail, they were very hard. And he actually used those words quite often. He said first, the Soviet Union he felt was so weak at bottom, he was saying this in the '70s now, at the height of detente, when we thought that the U.S. and the Soviet Union were kind of coming together in a way, and that there had to be a recognition of the Soviet Union as more of a normal state in the international system.

He said no. The Soviet Union is so weak at bottom, it's economy, that it can't sustain the technology race with us and recover. Second, he argued, and many Sovietologists disagreed straight through his presidency until the Soviet Union fell apart. He said the sole source of legitimacy of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the countries will go their own way. We know that happened after 1989. Third, he argues that the American economy was so strong at bottom that it could sustain maybe some deficits, definitely a technology race and recover. And finally, and this seemed very much like heresy shortly after Vietnam, but he was making this case.

That the American public would support something like peacetime rearmament. If American leaders would only explain that that was a strategy to get a very different goal, which was mutual cooperation with our adversary, the Soviet Union.

So he seems like he's ...I'll stop there.

BROWN: I'm sorry, I felt like I was a student in the class there for a minute. Let me throw in -- let me ask one more question. In sort of researching him, reading him over time, does he ever express regrets for positions he took. We're all a product of our times. But he was vehement in his opposition to Medicare for example in the '60s. He was not a supporter of the 1964 civil rights act for example.

Do we ever see in him an evolution of his social thinking in that regard?

SKINNER: I think that's an excellent question Aaron. We do see that in Ronald Reagan. And I think one of the best examples -- you are right. He didn't support the 1964 civil rights legislation. And a good example of I think an evolution in Reagan's thinking and sometimes a quick updating was the fact that signed the Martin Luther King holiday. After earlier having wondered aloud in a press conference if Martin Luther King had been associated with communists.

He signed the bill starting the holiday, and also called Mrs. King to apologize. So we do see Reagan being very adept at changing and adapting to times. And updating his own philosophies.

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. Will you come back this week?

SKINNER: I sure will.

BROWN: Thank you much.

SKINNER: Bye.

BROWN: Thank you. We'll take a break here. We're a look at some of the morning papers, other things to do in our last 10 minutes or so with you tonight. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Just a few morning papers from around the country. Headlines are interesting, but the pictures they chose are I think the most notable on a day like today. This is how the "Boston Herald" will arrive on the doorsteps of the good folks in Boston tomorrow. "Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004 American Legend." And that's the picture they chose, and that's a good one.

"The Richmond Times Dispatch," does a drawing. But this is a drawing you are going to see a lot of, or a picture you'll see a lot of. "The Great Communicator" is the headline. And the lead reads Ronald Wilson Reagan, a president who shaped the politics of his own country, and the balance of global power, dies yesterday in his home in California. He was 93, the longest living president.

Quickly here both, I'll show them both to you. "Newsweek," recognize that picture? You don't get "Newsweek"? You get "Time"? Well we're pleased around here to here that by the way. Actually we love them both. Same picture. In a commemorative edition in both. And these guys were scrambling today, believe me. They go to bed on Saturdays so they had to redo the magazines.

"Charlotte Observer" farewell Mr. President. That's a nice shot TOOBIN: . The "Cincinnati Inquirer," Nation mourns loss of Reagan. And we also end this with the "Chicago Sun Times." And we will again tonight. This is the picture. And this is to me the picture of Ronald Reagan. Cowboy hat and all. We'll wrap up the night in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As we mentioned early on in the program, by the end of Ronald Reagan's second term, some of the luster had left the administration, and some of the gleam had gone out of his eye. He remained however, the consummate communicator. January 11th, 1989 after eight years in office, he spoke to Americans for one last time from the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAGAN: My fellow Americans, this is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval Office, and the last. We've been together eight years now, and soon it will be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to share some thoughts. Some of which I've been saving for a long time.

It's been the honor of my life to be your president. So many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks. But I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve. One of the things about the presidency is that you're always somewhat apart.

You spend a lot of time going by to fast in a car someone else is driving. And seeing the people through tinted glass, the parents holding up a child, and the wave you saw to late and couldn't return. And so many times I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass and connect. Well maybe I can do a little of that tonight.

People ask how I feel about leaving. And the fact is parting is such sweet sorrow. The sweet part is California, on the ranch and freedom. The sorrow, the good byes of course, and leaving this beautiful place. I won a nickname, The Great Communicator. But I never thought it was my style or the words that I used that made a difference. It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things. And they didn't spring full bloom from my brow. They came from the heart of a great nation.

From our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan Revolution. Well, I'll accept that. But for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery. A rediscovery of our values, and our common sense.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So we cut the people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before. I've been asked if I have any regrets. Well I do. The deficit is one. I've been talking a great deal about that lately.

But tonight isn't for arguments, and I'm going to hold my tongue. But in observation, I've had my share of victories in the congress. But what few people noticed is I never won anything you didn't win for me. The never saw my truce. They never saw Reagan's regimens. The American people. You won every battle with every call you made, and letter you wrote demanding action.

Well action is still needed. If we are to finish the job of Reagan's regimens, we'll have to become the Bush Brigades. Soon, he'll be the chief. And he'll need you every bit as much as I did. We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan Revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back.

My friends, we did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. And so good-bye, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Unlike most countries, the United States embodies in it's president both the Head of State, and political leadership. On days like this, it is a good thing to keep in mind, that whether you agreed with President Reagan on the issues or not, the political side. He was the head of state, you state. And so we can mourn tonight, and we do his passing even as we are relieved for his family which has struggled for 10 years.

We'll see you tomorrow from Washington. Good night.

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